


Scientia Potentia Est

by Accio_mischief



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Anxious remus, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Marauders, Marauders' Era, My First Fanfic, Past Abuse, Ravenclaw Remus Lupin, Slow Burn, Work In Progress, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-15 06:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 33,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13607058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accio_mischief/pseuds/Accio_mischief
Summary: Remus Lupin has a really bad anxiety disorder and ends up in Ravenclaw, everything changes.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this is my first fanfic I've actually gotten around to posting, bare with me. I have a lot of it written out so far but I don't completely know where I'm going with it. We shall see. Also I suck at descriptions, sorry. It's gonna go between Remus & Sirius POV.

Remus Lupin felt like he could barely breathe. He was standing in the largest room he had ever seen and he couldn’t even tell where the ceiling started because it just looked like the sky outside; dark, sprinkled with stars and never ending. He gulped and looked at all the people surrounding him, there were hundreds.

He felt incredibly tiny. Remus had always been ridiculously small for his age and he was easily the smallest person in the entire room. Granted, he was only 11 years old but he was currently in the middle of a massive group of kids that were also only 11 and he was still the shortest and scrawniest of the lot. It didn’t help that he was also currently shrinking into himself any time it even seemed like someone was looking in his direction. 

Remus never thought he’d have a chance to attend Hogwarts with his ‘problem.’ Honestly, he never even thought of the possibility that he would be here until Headmaster Dumbledore himself had come knocking on the Lupin’s door offering him a spot at the school so long as he followed a few simple rules. He’d leapt at the chance when it was first given to him but now that he was actually there he was starting to re-think his decision.

He heard the scary witch at the front of the hall call out the name “Annabelle Jennings” and immediately started to panic. They were already at the Js! He wished he knew exactly how many Ks there were in the group around him. What if there weren’t any? For all he knew he could be next!

He felt very sweaty and shaky. Remus started to panic and he attempted to slow his breathing, thinking about his mum telling him over and over that everything would be fine this morning. That seemed so far away now.

Jennings was making her way over to the cheering table decorated in yellow – Hufflepuff, Remus reminded himself. He was probably going to end up there. He didn’t think himself very cunning, witty, or brave but he could be extremely kind, according to his mum anyway. 

Soon “Martin Johnson” was put in Ravenclaw and Remus found himself struggling to breathe again. He’d be called up soon, he could feel it. As Martin made his way over to the far end of the hall to loud applause Remus was staring at the front of the hall not wanting to accidentally miss his name and make a fool of himself. 

“Remus Lupin.” 

He gulped.

Now or never. Here we go.

Remus walked up to the front of the hall very slowly being careful not to trip. He knew he was just clumsy and unlucky enough that it would happen if he weren’t paying attention. The witch – McGonagall smiled at him and he gave a shaky smile back at her as he sat on the stool.

Breathe, Remus. You’ll be fine.

McGonagall lowered the giant hat onto his head and it slipped all the way down nearly to his chin. “Ah! A Lupin…. Hmmm…” a voice whispered. The hat was talking in his head! 

“You know, you’re much braver than you think…” the hat seamed to hum in thought. “You’re awfully intelligent, you know? So much potential, so much magical skill.” 

No, I’m really not. Can we just choose something please? Maybe Hufflepuff? That’d be good.

Remus heard something that sounded like a laugh. “No, not Hufflepuff. Not Slytherin either. What to do with you…”

Remus bit his lip suddenly feeling very scared that the hat would shout that he didn’t belong here at all, that there was no house for him. He didn’t want to have to be thrown out in front of the entire school.

Anywhere, please.

The hat seamed to be laughing at him again and then there was a mumbled, “Alright then…” and then a shout to the entire hall, “RAVENCLAW!”

Remus nearly ran off with the hat still on, he was so happy that it was all over.

In what seamed like no time at all he was sitting at the Ravenclaw table being introduced to so many people he couldn’t possibly remember a single one of their names while some of them thumped him on the back lightly or shook his hand vigorously. He felt himself flush at the attention as the next student “Mary MacDonald” was called up to the front and promptly sorted into Gryffindor. Remus breathed a sigh of relief and settled in to watch the rest of the sorting.

*******  
Remus couldn’t possibly sleep after the day he had just had. There were too many things spinning in his head and no matter how tired he was, his brain just wouldn’t let him rest. 

He also desperately missed his mum. He knew he was getting too old for her to be tucking him in to bed every night and telling him stories but he missed her all the same.

He tossed and turned hoping the other boys in his dorm wouldn’t hear him. There would be a full moon in four days time, luckily falling on a Sunday so he wouldn’t miss any of his first classes this week. He thought over his conversation with Dumbledore from the summer. All the teachers knew of his condition and would give him time to make up work. The school nurse – Madam Pomfrey would expect him an hour and a half before each moonrise in the hospital wing so that she could bring him to the shack.

Remus had yet to actually visit the shack and thinking about it made him very scared. He knew Madam Pomfrey was only in her second year of being the school nurse and that also scared him a little bit. His mother was a muggle so could never heal him by magical means after a moon but she always took care and did her very best and if something was truly bad that month his father would fix it in no time. He didn’t know anything about Madam Pomfrey. He was to go meet her after all his classes tomorrow.

He let out a sigh. He had classes tomorrow. He really needed to get some rest. Stressing about the moon would only make it worse. He knew he’d start feeling it tomorrow anyway so he might as well at least try to be well rested and not tired as well as achy.

He soon drifted off into a fitful sleep dreaming about being trapped in a dark and creaking shack as the walls got smaller and smaller caving in on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, Hi. Hope you liked it. The first few chapters are obviously just going to be a bit of a build up and I'm going to attempt to plow right on through the first two years and then like actually get into it, if that makes any sense. Okay yea, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter Two

Sirius Black was confused. He was more than confused, he was shocked beyond belief. How on earth had he ended up in _Gryffindor_? Of all houses, he really didn’t think the hat would actually place him in Gryffindor. I mean, yes, he had begged and begged the hat to place him there refusing to go anywhere near the Slytherins but he didn’t actually think it would listen to him! _Nobody listens to him!_

 

Now he was sat at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast with his two new dorm mates on either side of him. James Potter and Peter Pettigrew.

 

Potter was interesting enough. He knew the family were what his own family would call “blood traitors” but that only intrigued Sirius further. He’d be friends with just about anyone if it meant he could piss off his parents.

 

On the other hand, Pettigrew was an awkward sort of guy. Sirius had never heard of his family, apparently his mother was a muggleborn. But he was pretty funny and although he tried way too hard to make everyone around him laugh he was still alright.

 

There was a second year across from him, Frank Longbottom, going on and on about Hogwarts and what classes were like and who were the best professors but it was all giving Sirius a headache.

 

He poked his eggs around on his plate as Peter and James talked to Frank. _What were his parents going to say? Not that he cared too much, mind. But they were sure to be furious. How dare he do this to them? Blah, blah, blah. Hell, maybe they’d finally just ignore him? That’d be something._

“Black!” James was yelling in his ear and shaking him. He looked up at him with an irritated frown.

 

“What?”

 

“You… er, you’ve got a howler, mate.” His eyes darted to the table space in front of Sirius. Sirius followed his line of vision and saw the bright red envelope that was starting to smoke. _Ugh._

           

He stared at the envelope willing it to disappear, but no such luck. Everyone around him was also starring. Sirius wasn’t sure he was going to open it. Maybe it’d be better if it just blew up instead.

 

“Black, maybe you should-“ Longbottom was interrupted as the letter gave a loud screech and went up in flames.

 

Everyone in the hall was starring at Sirius now. _Oh well_. He stood up and walked straight out of the hall. Everyone was silent and watched him leave as the envelope continued to smolder on the table.

 

The second he was in the hall he paused. He had no idea where he was going. He didn’t know what to do. He just couldn’t stay in there when that thing went off. He hated his parents. _A howler on the first day? Really!_

He decided to go back up to his dorm. He didn’t want to be around when the letter started screaming out his mother’s voice.

 

He heard a sound of footsteps rushing behind him as he began his way up the stairs. When he turned around he saw a pink-faced James Potter.

 

“Black, are you okay? Who sends a howler on the first day of school? It’s ridiculous! And bashing Gryffindor like that! Wow, be glad you didn’t actually hear the thing. Professor McGonagall put it out only a few seconds after it started to go off. She looked right furious, I’ll tell you!” Potter was talking a mile a minute as they climbed the stairs, waving his hands about all the while.

 

Potter took a deep breath as he paused and then seemed to remember something. “Oh! McGonagall gave me your schedule. I mean it’s the same as mine, but she thought you’d like a copy you know?” He held out the sheet of parchment to Sirius.

 

Sirius just looked at him. “You talk too fast.” He took the schedule. “Take a breath now and then.”

 

Potter just beamed at him and then went on rambling about how McGonagall put out the envelope and that it was so _cool_ and if Sirius didn’t mind, but he just really thought his parents were terrible for starting the school year off with a howler. But also howlers were so _cool_ , right? He’d never seen one before.

 

Sirius was ready to tell him to shut up, but realized they’d made it to the charms corridor, their first class of the day. _Was he really going to have to deal with Potter for seven years?_

*******

One week into school and Sirius was no longer thinking of his family what so ever. All he was thinking about was how we was going to buy James Potter the biggest bar of chocolate anyone has ever seen.

 

James had overheard one of Sirius’ older cousins going off at him in the potions corridor about “family honor” and how Sirius would regret even coming to school because he had really done it now.

 

James had then taken it upon himself to try out the first charm they’d been taught just the day before on the girl’s books, _wingardium leviosa_.

 

Soon she was screaming with her arms flailing trying to collect everything together again, but James still hadn’t perfected the spell so instead of the books just hovering in the air, they were flying all over the corridors.

 

Sirius barked out a laugh and turned to look at James as he started laughing too. _Okay, we can be mates_.

 

*******

After that mini-prank on Narcissa Black, the two were inseparable planning all types of pranks and trying to figure out how they’d be able to pull them off. James also got their third roommate involved as well. Peter had surprisingly nice handwriting so the other two had gotten him to start writing down all their ideas for future use.


	3. Chapter Three

October at Hogwarts was the most beautiful thing Remus has ever seen. Everything was orange and red and warm. He’d always loved being outside and so he took every opportunity to do so.

 

The other members of his house were always in the library studding but Remus preferred to go outside and sit under the trees when he read. Usually one of his dormmates, Leo Morgan, would join him.

 

There were 5 other Ravenclaw boys in Remus’ year, two of which he shared a dorm with. They were the biggest house in their year, which Remus found a little intimidating. He had so many people to hide his secret from. He typically kept to himself as often as he could. He didn’t want to risk getting too close to anyone.

 

The two boys in Remus’ dorm were nice enough. There was Ludo Bagman who was over excitable and a little too obsessed with the quidditch team. He followed them around constantly and was always trying to talk about them to Remus and Leo. Leo Morgan on the other hand, was a muggleborn and had never heard of quiddtch so he never really knew what to talk about with Ludo.

 

Remus didn’t understand quidditch much either because he’d grown up mostly in the muggle world. So, the two of them became fast friends after both hiding in the bathroom together to avoid Ludo’s ramblings about the quidditch practice he had gone to watch.

 

Leo was a very quiet person, which honestly is what Remus liked about him the most. He never felt the need to carry on a conversation or talk just for the sake of talking. They spent most of their time together just reading and studying. Leo would always ask to clarify things with Remus. He questioned magic a lot, which Remus always found funny. In return Leo would lend him muggle novels to read since he had brought more books to school than clothes.

 

*******

It was the day before the very first quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw and Remus was probably the least excited person in the entire school. Just the thought of being in such a large and loud crowd made him nervous. He didn’t even like eating in the Great Hall while everyone else was there and always tried to be early so he could leave before everybody came.

 

All the other first years were all talking excitedly about the game and the older years were all placing bets. Leo had even asked Remus what time he wanted to go so that they could grab a good seat. Remus had panicked and shouted that he had to work on his potions project and then ran away to hide.

 

He was sitting in what he had thought was his secret nook in the History of Magic section of the library when none other than Lily Evans, his potions partner, dropped a book in his lap.

 

“I saw you were reading _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ the other day and you were near the end, so I thought I’d suggest another Shakespeare book. This one is one of my favorites.” She was beaming down at him.

 

He slowly looked down at the book _Twelfth Night_ and then back up at Evans. She was still beaming.

 

“T-thanks. I… er, I- yeah thanks,” he stammered and felt the heat rising up his face.

 

She sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of him with he cloak billowing out behind her. He had never spoken to her out side of classes and was a bit confused. She started pulling another book out of her bag.

 

She was hiding her face with her bright red hair as she started talking again. “I overheard you in the entrance hall this morning.”

 

He quickly looked up at her, blushing deeper.

 

“You don’t have to tell me anything, but I wanted to let you know I didn’t want to go to the game either. The whole _massive sporting event_ thing makes me a little uncomfortable,” she smiled at him from behind her scarlet curtain of hair. “We can hang out, I mean if you want. We could also actually work on the potions project too.”

 

He nodded and then she smiled at him and opened her book. Remus gave a small smile even though she wasn’t looking anymore. They ended up both sitting there silently reading for the rest of the afternoon.

 

*******

The next day Remus met Lily in the library. They decided to study some of the theory behind the potion they were going to be making in class next week. She never asked Remus why he’d lied about not being able to go to the game and he was extremely grateful.

 

He didn’t think anyone would understand why being around people made him so nervous. He was honestly anxious all the time but he was so scared of having a panic attack in the middle of the quidditch match. There were too many people and it was way too loud. Not to mention he didn’t really know how the game worked and was terrified Bagman and the others would make fun of him. Even the muggleborns knew more than he did.

 

Flying lessons had been a nightmare. He was the last to get his broom in the air and had spent an hour after class trying not to cry in his room while everyone else was at dinner. He’d felt too sick to eat anything that night.

 

Lily didn’t actually talk that much all day. She just asked a few questions or pointed a few things out as they took notes. Remus was delighted that he knew a lot of things about the theory that she didn’t. Potions was easily his worst subject but he was great at reading and understanding the facts.

 

They ended up writing the entire essay for the project, which wasn’t due for another week. Lily then wrote out a list of muggle novels she thought he would like. Overall it was a pretty great day and he was glad to have missed the game.

 

That was, until he made it back to the common room and found the kind of ridiculous party that was going on. He ran through the common room to the stairs so fast he didn’t even stop to breathe. Parties were very much not his thing.

 

The second he was in his dorm he shut the door behind him and leaned back against it breathing deeply. _He felt so stupid!_ He couldn’t even celebrate with the rest of his house! He began to feel suffocated just thinking about it. He slowed his breathing down.

 

He walked over to sit on his bed and hung his head in his hands. He couldn’t even say congrats or a quick hello. Why was he so terrible at being around people. They were all bound to be in a good mood. He doubted anyone even realized he’d missed the game. No one would be mean about that. But of course all he could think about was that he’d just say the wrong thing and everyone would just hate him.

 

He sighed and began putting his studying things away. In no time he’d gotten all ready and tucked up in bed with his book. He’d had a pretty good day despite his panicking and honestly, he didn’t care about the match, although he was happy his house had apparently won. Everyone would be in a good mood for a while and no one would pay him any attention. He could get through this. He smiled and opened up _Twelfth Night._


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY. Sorry it's a short one today. Next chapter will be up on Friday & then after that Chapter six is wicked long, bare with me here.

“If Bagman doesn’t shut up about the game I am going to throw a book at him.” James was gripping the telescope so hard that it started to shake.

 

“Make it _Hogwarts: A History_. That thing is massive.”

 

James snorted and looked back at Sirius with a small smile, the first he’d had on his face since Gryffindor lost their game the other day.

 

They were sitting in Astronomy drawing pictures of the constellations, which Sirius could nearly do just by memory alone. Peter was copying off him while James checked to make sure everything was right. He only had to correct Sirius once the entire class. It was a little infuriating how he was always right.

 

“Wait until I’m on the team next year. It’ll be great.”

 

“How do you know they’ll need a new player?” Peter asked.

 

“Two of the chasers are seventh years so they’ll be leaving. They also need a keeper. I know he’s a sixth year but he’s dreadful,” James said matter-of-factly as he copied Sirius’ charting of _Ursa Major_.

 

Peter just nodded along.

 

There was a bit of loud muttering from the other side of the room where all the Ravenclaws were sat. All three boys looked up.

 

“I mean, I really could play any position, you know?” Bagman was saying to his small crowd. “I have an uncle, he works for the Falcons and got me riding when I was really young.”

 

All the girls were hanging on to every word and nodding along. The boys were laughing but also nodding. Sirius thought they’d probably all finished their work by now. It didn’t look like they were drawing anymore. There were only two Ravenclaws still using the telescopes but they were sitting with one of the Gryffindor girls.

 

“I bet he sucks at flying,” James mumbled as he angrily crossed out one of his stars.

 

*******

 

Two days later they were sitting in Potions class. James and Sirius had somehow managed to convince Slughorn to pair them together. They were right behind Peter who had unfortunately been put with non-other than Ludo Bagman.

 

Bagman was _still_ talking about the game. He was giving Peter his condolences and wishing Gryffindor luck next year. Sirius normally didn’t get that hung up over quidditch but he knew if was driving James insane.

 

Sirius had to keep moving James’ hands away from putting random ingredients in their cure for boils potion that they were meant to be working on.

 

“The problem with the Gryffindor team is that they just go right into playing the game, none of them really know how to think, you know?” Bagman was saying in a hushed tone.

 

James was slowly turning red. His right had was crushing the seeds they were meant to be using for the potion. Sirius bent down to search through his bag and soon stood back up holding a bright pink firework. He nudged James in the side. When James turned to look at him and saw the firework, his jaw dropped.

 

Sirius gave a small wink as James asked Bagman if he could borrow Peter for a second. Peter gave James a confused look but walked to their desk and James dragged him to the back of the classroom to the ingredients storage. Sirius smiled to himself, counted to 10 and threw the small firework directly into Bagman’s caldron.

 

Sirius ducked under the table pretending to look in his bag again. Nothing happened and for a split second Sirius grew a bit upset. Then there was a loud spitting noise and a few screams coming from in front of him.

 

He peeked over his table and laughed aloud at the sight. He’d gotten 3 rows covered in the potion and every bit of skin it touched was sporting large, disgusting boils. Bagman’s face was absolutely covered and he looked horrified.

 

Slughorn was sporting a very confused face at the front of the room. Sirius smiled to himself, Slughorn looked so lost. And then he looked straight at Sirius and Sirius ducked under the table again.

 

On the other side of the room James was clutching his stomach trying not to laugh as a massive, red boil exploded on Bagman’s forehead. Slughorn had picked up the firework remains from the bottom of the caldron and was reprimanding Sirius.

 

“He should have used puffer-fish eyes. It would have been impossible to tell how the potion exploded, he wouldn’t have gotten caught,” someone in the row in front of him was mumbling.

 

James looked up toward the voice. It was a small Ravenclaw boy with too-bright blonde hair. He was whispering to Evans, who was laughing at Sirius getting told he’d have a week of detention.

 

James turned to Peter as they walked back to Sirius, “Who’s that sitting with Evans?”

 

Peter turned to look and then turned back to James and shrugged. James asked Sirius as they got back to the table.

 

“Who cares, did you _see_ Bagman’s face? It was too good,” Sirius was laughing despite the detentions.

 

“You realize, he gave you a detention on your birthday, right?” Peter pointed out.

 

Sirius stopped laughing.

 

“Damn. Knew it was too good to be true.”

 

James and Peter started laughing and Sirius smirked at them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Hope you had a good Valentine's Day, I have been stuck at my internship & in classes all day. I also posted a fluffy muggle AU Wolfstar oneshot so check that out as well! Thanks. See you all on Friday with the next chapter!


	5. Chapter Five

It was December 3rd and Remus had just woken up after a full moon. It wasn’t too terrible this month but he had missed his morning classes and was rushing down to the Great Hall for lunch before going to his afternoon classes. He had had to beg Madam Pomfrey to let him go.

 

When he entered the hall he saw most of the students were already eating so he quickly picked a vacant area at the end of the Ravenclaw table and pulled out his History of Magic essay that was due next period to check over and make sure it was ready to hand in.

 

He usually sat with the other boys in his year at lunch but Remus couldn’t see them so just sat by himself feeling awkward.

 

He was barely even looking at his essay. He was more just eating a sandwich and cursing himself for not at least trying to find Leo and ask for his Herbology notes.

 

“Hey, how come your tie is fine?” a boy sitting down the table asked.

 

Remus started. He looked down at his blue and bronze tie and back up at the boy flushing as he noticed the glare on his face.

 

“Did _you_ have something to do with this?” he asked with a sneer.

 

“W-what? No. I don’t e-even-“ Remus stuttered, obviously confused. He looked around at everyone else at the table. Everybody else’s ties were stripped red and green instead of blue and bronze. Remus felt a flush creep up his neck. He tried to take a deep breath to calm down but his breathing remained short and fast. His head started spinning. He was going to have an attack right here in the hall if he didn’t calm down soon.

 

“Don’t lie! You’re the only one in the school with a normal tie,” another boy said. They looked like sixth or seventh years. Remus shrunk down and hid his face with his paper.

 

_Breathe, Remus. Ignore them._

 

“Hey!” someone down the table shouted. Remus looked up and saw Leo standing on the bench. “I’m sure it wasn’t Remus. He’s been in hospital since yesterday afternoon.”

 

Most of the table was staring at Remus now and he felt like he could melt straight into the floor right this very second and that would be completely fine. He knew his face was redder than the tomatoes in his sandwich.

 

_Come on, in and out. Slowly. You did nothing wrong._

 

Leo at this point had gotten up and come to sit next to Remus. He gave Remus a small smile and then a pointed look at the two boys that had been accusing him.

 

“Yea, hospital. Sure,” the first boy said and rolled his eyes, but he turned away from Remus and didn’t bring it up again.

 

“Are you feeling better?” Leo asked. Remus gave a small nod but didn’t look at Leo and turned back to his sandwich.

 

“The whole school woke up today to find their ties died red and green. No one knows why or how it happened.” Leo began making himself a new plate and Remus looked around the hall. He was right everyone in every house was wearing a red and green tie.

 

A lot of people were still looking in his direction. Remus caught the eye of one of the first year Gryffindors, _something Potter_ , giving him a sympathetic look.

 

_Of course, Potter and his friends were always pulling some stupid prank. It was obviously them. They died Bellatrix Black’s hair red two weeks ago._

“Even the professors are stumped. Pretty brilliant prank, if you ask me. I mean everyone leaves for holiday tomorrow. Throwing in a bit of holiday fun is always… well, fun.” Leo beamed at him. Remus looked up and gave a small smile in return.

 

Leo dug through his bag for a minute and brought out some notes. “Okay, I’ve got Transfiguration and Astronomy notes from yesterday. It’s too bad you missed our class on the full moon! It was so cool.” He handed Remus a small stack of notes. “There’s also Herbology and Charms from this morning.”

 

Remus squeaked out a small thanks and then got to work copying the Transfiguration notes. Leo smiled at him then went on talking about how Joseph Mulciber from Slytherin dropped an entire bowl of puffapods that all started to bloom and was given a week of detention.

 

*******

Right after Defense Against The Dark Arts, which was their last class of the day, Remus rushed off to the library to finish copying Leo’s borrowed notes so he could give them back before everyone left for break tomorrow.

 

Remus was beyond excited to go back home. He loved being at Hogwarts but he really needed a break from feeling so overwhelmed all the time. Lily had lent him _Macbeth_ to read over break and Remus kept having to hold off from reading it. He didn’t want to start until break started because he knew he’d finish it too quickly.

 

Lily had hung out with Remus a lot since they worked on their potions project. She did homework with him and Leo in the library almost every day. Sometimes she would bring along her Slytherin friend but Remus didn’t really like him. Snape was rude most of the time and seemed to really hate hanging out with them all.

 

Leo had said that he didn’t like them because he was a Slytherin and Slytherins weren’t supposed to hang out with muggleborns and half-bloods. This didn’t make much sense to Remus because Lily was a muggleborn and he always hung out with her.

 

Nonetheless, Remus really enjoyed Lily’s company. She was very smart and very funny. She talked a little too much, but that only meant Remus had to do less talking as she always carried the conversation.

 

She always complained about the boys in her house always losing them points. There were three boys in their year, Potter, Pettigrew, and Black, along with two boys in the sixth year, the Prewett twins, that were always causing trouble.

 

Remus had enjoyed some of the pranks that the younger boys had put together but also pointed out all the flaws to Lily. He knew there were easier ways of doing the same pranks without ever getting caught. Whenever he brought this up to her she would just roll her eyes and say something along the lines of, “oh, not you too!”

 

Overall, Remus had really enjoyed his first term at Hogwarts. None of his friends thought it odd that he got “sick” a lot and he was doing pretty well in all his classes. He spent way too much time doing extra studying so that he wouldn’t fall behind and usually ended up ahead of schedule.

 

He so far hadn’t had any full panic attacks since the flying lesson so he was doing a lot better than he thought he would be. He had a lot of times when he was nearly there but he’d always get this little voice in his head, that sounded an awful lot like his mother, reminding him to calm down and that everything would be okay. It always helped a lot.

 

He hadn’t planned on making any good friends, just wanting to get through school without anyone paying him too much attention but he really loved hanging out with Leo and on occasion Lily as well.

 

As soon as he had finished copying the notes he went down to dinner. Leo wasn’t there yet so he sat on his own reading his Astrology book, not that he really needed to revise for the full moon lesson he missed, but he might as well.

 

When Remus was nearly done with his dinner the rest of the Ravenclaw first years came through the door to the Great Hall and all sat around Remus. He felt himself start to flush. _They’d chosen to sit next to him!_

 

He didn’t really talk to any of them other than Leo and every once in a while Ludo, because they lived in the same dorm. Remus smiled to himself as one of the girls, McKenzie Allen, asked him if he had been feeling any better after spending the night in the hospital.

 

“Yes, thanks,” he whispered and she smiled at him then asked him to pass the bread bowl.

 

_Yea, this first term had gone pretty well._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's another short one. Most of the chapters will be shorter for years 1 & 2.  
> I've changed the rating & will probably add tags just 'cause next chapter dives a bit into Sirius' home life, if ya know what I mean....   
> ANYWAY, hope you liked the new chapter. The next one is wicked long & will be up on Sunday.   
> Have a lovely weekend. :)


	6. Chapter Six

Sirius knew he was visibly shaking in his seat but James and Peter hadn’t pointed it out, and he was immensely grateful. He didn’t exactly feel like talking about how terrified he was about going home for the holidays.

 

He had originally planned to just stay at the school by himself over break but apparently his mother had had other plans. She had sent him a letter demanding his presence at home for Christmas. It was the only letter he had received from home other than the howler he was sent on his second day.

 

The letter had been a very short, “ _You will be home for the Christmas Holidays. – W.B.”_

Sirius had grown quite depressed after the letter. He hated Christmas. He hated any extra time he would have to spend with his family. He hated that all his cousins and aunts and uncles would all come over to the house and reprimand him for being in Gryffindor, like it was his choice.

 

Granted, he had _asked_ the hat to put him in Gryffindor, but it had been the hat’s choice all along. Also, he hadn’t told a soul about begging to not go to Slytherin.

 

He was scared of what his parents would do. He hoped he’d just be locked up in his room and ignored. It was the best outcome he could hope for if he was being honest.

 

He tried to pay attention to the conversation the other two were having, something about Peter’s strange muggle cousins, but his mind kept going back to the disappointed look his mother always had when looking at him.

 

Sirius sunk down into his seat and ended up tuning out the other two and fell asleep.

 

*******

The Black’s house elf Kreacher had been the one to pick up Sirius at the platform. He hadn’t said a single word the entire time. He’d only given Sirius a dirty look and held out his hand for him to take and then apparated back to Grimmauld Place.

 

The house seemed empty when they arrived. Kreacher had unceremoniously kicked Sirius out of the dinning hall and back to his room. It felt a bit too good to be true. There was no way his mother wasn’t home. Walburga Black never left Grimmauld Place unless it was a special Ministry event. He was also pretty sure his brother had to be around here somewhere.

 

Regulus was the only redeeming factor of Sirius’ entire family. He had one older cousin who was pretty cool; she was in her sixth year at Hogwarts and a prefect. Andromeda was the only member of his family he’d spoken to since his sorting. She had always been nice to both Black brothers while her sisters had always been cruel.

 

Sirius loved his brother though. Regulus would always sneak up food whenever Sirius got in trouble and was told to go to bed with no supper. Regulus had always laughed at his jokes and played games with him when he was younger.

 

The only problem was that Regulus was terrified of their parents. Sirius had always been rebellious ever since he was very young. Regulus loved his brother but could never really follow him through anything, he had seen first hand what their parents would do when Sirius disobeyed.

 

Sirius was scared that his brother would be too scared to talk to him. He’d be too terrified of getting on their parents’ bad side.

 

After three hours of laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling, Sirius finally came to the conclusion that his brother was not planning to seek him out. He sighed and rolled off his bed. It was nearly seven. His family ate at exactly 7:00 p.m. every night. Sirius wasn’t about to give his parents something else to yell at him for.

 

He was properly dressed and down sitting in his seat in the dinning room by 6:54 p.m. He was the first one there but everything was perfectly laid out on the table so at least he knew they were actually having dinner there and they hadn’t left without telling him.

 

Two minutes later and his little brother slid into the seat across from him. He gave Sirius a small smile that looked a little apologetic and as Sirius opened his mouth to talk to him, their parents burst into the room.

 

They sat down at the heads of the table, is mother on his left and father on his right. The table was too long for this seating arrangement to look normal to anyone outside the Black household.

 

Walburga Black was a very old and imposing witch. She was tall with long and curly jet-black hair perfectly held up atop her head with intricate weaving and expensive jeweled pins. She didn’t look as old as she actually was, thanks to all the magic used to keep her looking and feeling young. She always had a look on her face that made you think that everyone and everything was beneath her.

 

Orion Black didn’t look much like his sons unless you were truly looking for it. He never smiled but if he did you would see how similar it was to that of his children. His hair was more brown than black but also riddled with grey. He too managed to look much younger than he was thanks to magic. He was a similar height to his wife and had a bit of weight on him, not that he minded too much.

 

No one said anything but there was an obvious look of disgust on his mother’s face although she refused to look at her oldest son.

 

At exactly 7 p.m. plates appeared on the table in front of all of them. They were pilled high with seafood and fancy vegetables Sirius couldn’t pronounce. He suddenly missed the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding that he’d grown so fond of at school.

 

His mother asked about the Ministry and his father said things were going well and that was about it for conversation. They all ate in silence. Neither of his parents looked even remotely in his direction the entire time and for once, Sirius was too scared to provoke them.

 

The silent treatment only meant they were going to yell at him once Regulus wouldn’t be around to witness it. Sirius preferred it this way. He wanted to protect his younger brother from their wrath.

 

He would never let anything happen to Regulus if he could help it. He was always there after Sirius had been punished, but Sirius would never let him actually witness it, not that his parents would allow that either.

 

When they were very young, Sirius 7 and little Regulus 5, Regulus had broken a very old and expensive artifact. It was some magically cursed statue that was placed in the center of the ornate table in the Black family library.

 

Walburga and Orion had been out at the time visiting with some important ministry members. The boys were supposed to be studding in the library but had decided to play a game instead. Kreacher had gone to clean in the dinning hall because their parents were bringing back ministry members for a dinner that night.

 

Little Regulus had persuaded his older brother to play a game he had invented that was a lot like quidditch but without the brooms. Regulus has ended up knocking over the statue just as they heard their parents floo home in the next room over. Sirius and Regulus had looked at each other and Regulus immediately burst into tears.

 

Sirius knew how his parents would react to seeing the statue shattered all over the floor and how they would punish his brother. He was still young, but Sirius had always gotten up to too much mischief. His mind was set. Regulus wouldn’t be getting in trouble.

 

As their parents burst into the room to see Sirius holding a silently sobbing Regulus and the mess of the statue all over the library floor, not to mention the busted table it had been sitting on, the world stilled.

 

Next thing they knew Orion had given his wife a look and then left the room closing the door behind him. With a flick of her wand to cast a silencing charm Walburga lost it. She was screaming and screeching about her ungrateful children and how much the statue was worth and how old it was. She yelled about how she hated them and how they were horrible children. She was better off without them.

 

As she raised her wand toward them Sirius had jumped up in front of his brother with his arms spread wide. “It was me,” he screamed. “All me. Reg didn’t do anything. He had begged me not to mess around, mum. I promise. It was just me.”

 

That was the last time Sirius had ever called Walburga Black his mother.

 

She sent Regulus out of the room who was white as a sheet and shaking silently. As soon as Regulus was out the door slammed shut again and Walburga faced her eldest son with what could only be described as a death glare.

 

That was the first and by no means the last time that she had ever raised a wand toward her son.

 

Sirius starred across the table at his brother now, wondering how he had been without him here to help. His brother hadn’t looked at him again since their parents entered. Sirius knew they must have all agreed to ignore Sirius until he could be dealt with.

 

*******

A week later and Sirius’ back was still in pain. His mother hadn’t lost her touch. She had a way with lashing spells, always had and probably always will. Sirius had spent three days straight in his room not being able to move.

 

He hadn’t done _anything_ wrong. He hated that his family hated him just for being different. He hated his family for everything they did to him, for the way they treated him. He hated his family and their views on the world.

 

His cousins had apparently been informing his parents about everything he did at school. Walburga had screamed and screamed about those _no good Potters_ corrupting her son. Sirius had attempted to stand up for his best friend but he couldn’t get a word out because as soon as he opened his mouth she had cast another curse at him.

 

_“Don’t you dare talk back to me, you ungrateful filth.”_

That’s what it always was with her. He was so _ungrateful_. In truth, he had nothing to be grateful for. He hated her. He hated his father for never doing anything. He never yelled and never took action. He would just look at his wife and then walk away. That was that. It was like Sirius wasn’t even worth his time.

 

Sirius couldn’t wait until the holidays were over. He missed Hogwarts more than anything in the world. He missed James every second and even on occasion, Peter. Peter was a strange boy but he was funny and brilliant at wizards chess. Sirius had always been so good and had grown to hate the game because it was too easy. Peter made it challenging and fun again.

 

Sirius stayed up late every night staring at the ceiling and trying to picture the warm Gryffindor dorm room, his favorite place in the world. Sometimes he could almost hear Peter laughing as James told some stupid and not at all funny joke.

 

_Only three more weeks, I can do this._

 

*******

Sirius spent nearly his entire break in his room by himself. Regulus would come whenever their parents were distracted and wouldn’t miss him. They talked and talked about anything and everything. Sirius hadn’t realized just how much he had missed his brother.

 

He told stories of Hogwarts and the ghosts and creatures. There were stories about the giant squid in the lake, stories about werewolves in the forbidden forest. He told Regulus about all the pranks he had pulled and all the pranks that the boys were working on and Sirius was so proud every time he made his brother laugh.

 

Christmas it’s self was pretty horrific. His parents gave him dark green Slytherin style dress robes and that was that. His aunt and uncle talked about how his being in Gryffindor was such a disappointment and how it made the family look bad as if Sirius wasn’t even in the room.

 

His cousin Bellatrix would join in and talk about all the disgracing things he got up to at school and his mother would send him these disgusting looks, meaning he would be punished severely if he kept it up.

 

Sirius just tried desperately to ignore them all. He counted down the days until he was back at school.

 

At the Black’s New Years party Sirius was sitting in the living room surrounded by family and those who his family thought _worthy,_ trying to pretend he wasn’t there. He knew he wouldn’t be allowed to go back to his room until all the guests had gone so he hid in a corner pretending to read his transfiguration book while his brother played chess with their cousin Andromeda near by.

 

Sirius really, truly, was trying to ignore the family around him but when he overheard the name “Potter” he couldn’t help but look up at who was speaking. His uncle Cygnus was waving his glass of wine around and boasting about the kind of company the Blacks keep compared to that of the Potters.

 

“So many from the Ministry are at the Potter gala tonight, you know? But this here, this is where any wizard of any stature would be. No one throws a party like the Blacks. This is the best of wizard kind right in this very room.” His cheeks were rosy and he was fumbling a bit as he talked. Sirius knew his uncle had had far too much to drink as it was much later in the night now and some of their guests had started to leave.

 

Sirius tried to ignore him. There was no one here of any stature, he thought. Even his favorite uncle had been banned from Black events. The family didn’t like his _ideals_ , meaning he had probably wanted to marry some muggleborn or half-blood and the family wouldn’t hear of it. Sirius didn’t know and wasn’t allowed to know, all he knew was that Alphard Black had been burned off the tapestry last year.

 

“Those _Potters_ are some of the worst of the lot!” some other family friend was saying and Sirius felt his face grow warm.

 

“Honestly, why should purebloods care so much about the mudbloods? It’s unnatural!” Cygnus continued. “They’ll be cast out with the rest of the filth when the time comes.”

 

Sirius stood up abruptly, his book falling to the floor with a loud thump. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. He saw briefly the pleading look on his brother’s face, his eyes screaming, _please don’t, Sirius._

But Sirius was no longer in control of his actions and before he knew what was happening he was yelling at everyone gathered there.

“How DARE you. What makes you better than anyone else? How can you–“

 

He was cut off as his mother swung her left hand at him faster than he’d ever seen anything move before. There was a brief pain beyond belief as Walburga Black’s massive diamond wedding ring cut across the flesh of Sirius’ upper lip. Then everything was silent and numb.

 

Sirius felt his world spinning and next thing he knew he was trapped in him room for the rest of the holiday with only a single meal a day.

 

His lip refused to heal and Walburga forbid the house elf from healing it either. Sirius was told he was to say it was an accident when he was back at school.

 

So, when he got on the platform for the Hogwarts Express going back to school it was with a black and blue right cheek, swollen red lips with the top one split so bad that it was difficult to eat and talk.

 

The second James saw him on the platform he dropped everything he was holding and rushed to Sirius’ side. Sirius tried to smile at him and winced. Next thing he knew James was dragging his mother over to Sirius who had nearly burst into tears as she saw Sirius’ face and tried to heal it. James was cursing left and right and Mrs. Potter scolded him repeatedly.

 

Sirius smiled.

 

_The Blacks aren’t my family. They never really will be. These people are._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said Sunday would be the next update, but whatever.  
> Thanks for reading. Please do comment, it makes me want to update more often! :)


	7. Chapter Seven

Despite dealing with a full moon on new years, Remus had had a very lovely Christmas break. He got to spend a lot of time with his parents and tell them all bout Hogwarts. His mother, of course, is a muggle so she never attended Hogwarts. She listened to Remus talk and talk about the castle and the teachers and the students and just everything. She would ask questions and get involved and laugh and joke with him.

 

Remus loved spending time with his mom, it was the only time he really felt safe. It was like nothing bad could ever happen when he was with her. She had always been there first thing in the morning to take care of him after a full moon. She always made sure to hold him and sing songs to him and just make him forget about all the horrible things in the world.

 

She made all of his favorite meals and read him stories and tucked him into bed. He knew he was starting to get too old for the cuddling but he didn’t care.

 

Now he was back at school and everything seemed to be going alright so far. It was the day before Lily’s birthday and she had asked Remus to get together in the library. She had originally asked if he would join her on her actual birthday along with Snape and some of the other Gryffindor girls but of course her birthday fell on a full moon and Remus had to make up an excuse not to attend.

 

His excuse was pretty abysmal and it was obvious Lily was very confused.

 

“I– I don’t think Snape…. Likes me very much. I better not er– join. He’s your best friend. He should get to hang out with you,” he had stuttered out to her just a week before.

 

She had ended up asking a lot of questions and saying that everything would be fine. Her friends from her own house were going so Remus should be able to go as well. He had ended up just asking to spend the day before with her instead. Somehow, she had agreed.

 

That’s where he was now, sitting in his favorite area of the library, the History of Magic section. No one ever really went over there so Remus loved being able to sit there on his own with no one to bother him.

 

He had gotten a copy of “The Tales of Beedle The Bard” for Lily for her birthday, knowing she would appreciate the wizarding world fairy tales, since she had grown up muggle and never had the chance to read them.

 

“Oh Remus, you will not believe what those idiots did this morning!” Lily shout-whispered as she fell to the ground in front of them. Remus looked up at her and smiled. By _those idiots_ she of course meant Pettigrew, Potter, and Black who were the sole reason Gryffindor was currently in last place for the house cup.

 

“They put some sort of spell on the girls’ staircase and it’s become a slide! It won’t go away and no one can get up into the dorm!” She was absolutely fuming and Remus was sorry to say he found it a bit funny.

 

“The staircase becomes a slide when a boy tries to go up it, doesn’t it?” Remus asked. She gave a short nod in response.

 

“Okay…. So I reckon they were trying to sneak up the staircase and it turned into a slide. Then they were trying to figure out how to turn it back but it got stuck, because of course they _are_ idiots,” he explained as he pulled out a quill and parchment.

 

“Black thought it was absolutely hilarious when Marlene forgot her bag in the dorm and couldn’t get back up to fetch it.” She gave out a great sigh. “One of the fifth year prefects had to stand at the bottom summoning things that girls had forgotten for over an hour.”

 

Remus started scribbling away on the parchment but was nodding a long as she spoke.

 

“No one wanted to tell Professor McGonagall what happened so the prefects just gave the boys a few detentions and that was it. They’re apparently certain that they can fix it themselves.” Lily rolled her eyes and then looked pointedly at Remus. “What are you writing? Weren’t you listening?”

 

Remus let out a small chuckle. “I’m sure they’ll fix it. And if you wanted to get back at them…” he handed over the piece of parchment.

 

“ _Evanesco tribunalis_ , what’s that mean?” 

 

“It’s a spell. It’ll make the stairs to the boys dorm disappear,” he said with a shrug. 

 

“REMUS!” 

 

Remus jumped and covered her mouth with his hand. “Lily, do be quite. I don’t fancy being banned from the library this early in our Hogwarts career.” 

 

Lily glared at him and he slowly removed his hand. 

 

“Remus, I can’t make their stairs disappear! That’s awful. How could you ever suggest such a thing?” she said in hushed tones. 

 

“Well, it’d be nice to serve them some of their own medicine, wouldn’t it?” 

 

Lily looked unconvinced. “But, there’s more than just them that would be disrupted. All the Gryffindor boys would have to deal with no staircase!” 

 

Remus just shrugged and took the parchment back. He continued scribbling and crossing things out then let out a sigh. “I’ll think of something.” 

 

Lily gave him a small smile. 

 

“Well, happy birthday, Lily.” He held out the book wrapped in shiny blue paper. 

 

Lily beamed. “You really didn’t have to, Remus! Thank you so much.” She opened the package and took out the book. “Oh, it’s wonderful. I love it! I can’t wait to read these. Alice told me all about Babbitty Rabbitty, but I’m excited to read the rest.” She slipped the book into her bag.

 

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about their holiday breaks and about the upcoming transfiguration exam, even though they weren’t in the same class.  

 

In no time they were getting up to walk down to the Great Hall for dinner. Remus was feeling a bit faint and dizzy as the full moon was tomorrow. He was ready to go straight to bed, if he was being honest, but he knew he’d wake up feeling starved in the middle of the night if he didn’t eat something. 

 

“Remus, are you feeling alright?” Lily asked as he reached out to steady himself on one of the bookshelves as he stood up. “You look a tad…. Peaky.” 

 

“Just hungry, I suspect.” He gave her a small smile and they walked out of the library.

 

*******

Remus spent all of Sunday in the Hospital. Every time he sat up he felt like he might pass out. Madam Pomfrey finally took pity on him and gave him a sleeping draft for the rest of the day.

 

After the moon that night he woke up two days later feeling like the left side of his face was on fire. That wasn’t a good sign.

 

He sat up and put his hand up to his face. There was a bandage across his jaw.

 

“Oh, Lupin, you’re up. Good. Here you are,” Pomfrey handed him a small potion and then a glass of water. He downed the slimy potion with a grimace and then gratefully chugged the water afterwards.

 

“I’m sorry to say you must have gotten your face at some point. It’s not terrible but the scar won’t be going away, dear,” she gave him an apologetic smile as she re-filled his glass with a wave of her wand.

 

Remus frowned and asked for a mirror. She summoned one and he took a look at the damage. Peeling back the bandage he saw a scar starting halfway up his neck and across his jaw to the middle of his cheek. He flinched as he first took it all in. It was bright red and blotchy. He assumed the swelling had gone down because it wasn’t all that swollen like his normal scars were.

 

_How was he meant to explain this?_

 

Madam Pomfrey was watching him with a sour expression as he lightly ran a finger over the scar. “We’ve told your dormmates that you were out with a small case of dragon pox. When anyone asks, you’ll have to say that’s how you got the scratch.”

 

Remus nodded even though it was unlikely anyone would really believe _that._


	8. Chapter Eight

It was Thursday, the 3rd of February and Sirius Black was having a particularly bad day. It started out at breakfast that morning when suddenly his shoes just disappeared out of nowhere.

 

There was no rush of magic, no _poof_ , no nothing. Just one second they were there on his feet and next his feet were laying atop the freezing cold tiles of the Great Hall. And apparently, he wasn’t the only one.

 

James, Peter, and Sirius all gave a spontaneous shout and jumped up on the benches they were sitting on. Every single person in the hall turned to stare at them. He didn’t see Lily Evans covering her face in her hands trying not to laugh while everyone else had a look of shock on their face.

 

They collectively got 5 points taken away for being disruptive, but that was nothing compared to the trouble that followed.

 

They didn’t have time to go find other shoes and decided to wait until lunch to run up to the dorms. They were too scared to go to the professors, believing this was the side-affect of some prank that they had been working on.

 

The next items of clothing to commit a disappearing act were his socks and undershirt. He was in the middle of potions when he heard James next to him grunt. He turned to look at his friend and realized they were both missing socks along with their shoes. Sirius found it odd that he didn’t even feel the cloth from the undershirt move. It was like it was there one second and gone the next.

 

Grateful they didn’t have herbology next, the three boys were forced to walk to history of magic barefoot. Sirius’ feet were absolutely freezing by the time he sat down in his seat. He didn’t know any warming charms yet and as much as he trusted James, he was not going to allow his friend to experiment on him.

 

Halfway through class Sirius felt a small weight lifted from around his neck and knew without looking down at his tie was now gone too. He sighed as he heard Peter give out a small squeak from beside him.

 

He was now sure without a doubt that someone was messing with them, but who was it? The boys had struck a deal early on in the year with the Prewett twins to never prank one another and as far as Sirius knew, they were the only other pranksters in the castle.

 

Luckily, Professor Binns didn’t notice any of the missing clothing articles. Sirius didn’t want to loose any more points if it wasn’t actually worth it.

 

After class the three boys rushed back to their dorms to find every missing piece of clothing nicely placed on their respective beds. The three of them stared at one another with bewildered looks until Peter’s stomach grumbled. They rushed to put the clothes and shoes back on and the darted out the door and back to the Great Hall for lunch.

 

Nothing happened at lunch, which Sirius was grateful for. He didn’t need to be embarrassed in front of the entire school again.

 

As they were walking to their double charms class he noticed two Ravenclaws walking with the redhead from their house a couple meters in front of them. He probably wouldn’t have noticed them at all if Evans hadn’t been laughing and looking back at them as they walked.

 

As the three boys walked into the charms classroom, they proceeded to lose every article of clothing they had lost before. They rushed barefoot to their seats muttering to one another about what on earth was going on.

 

“Boys!”

 

Sirius flinched and looked down at tiny Professor Flitwick who looked so stern it was almost funny, _almost._

 

“Where are your ties? That will be 5 points from Gryffindor for each of you for improper dress codes!” he squeaked out and then walked back to the front of the room.

 

“We didn’t even _do_ anything!” James whined next to him.

 

“Who do you think it is?” Sirius was staring straight ahead at the Ravenclaws. It was hard to tell if the two that had been with Evans were involved because every single one was laughing at their expense. Even the other Gryffindors were chuckling, despite the fact that they had lost points.

 

Sirius felt so annoyed, like he’d been left out on some great joke. It wasn’t fair.

 

James suggested they go find the Prewett twins after class but Sirius just rolled his eyes, annoyed.

 

"Today we will be practicing the softening charm, _Spongify_. We have a double block today so we are going to cover theory and what the spell is most often used for for the first half-hour and the remainder of the class period will be focused on the practical application.”

 

Sirius sighed and pulled out his parchment and quill. He might as well pretend to take notes, not wanting to get into any more trouble for the day.

 

When it was time to start actually trying to use the spell everyone stood up and got into groups of four. James, Sirius, and Peter ended up paired with the one person Sirius wished most to talk to, Lily Evans.

 

Lily was correcting Peter’s wand movements when Sirius felt his belt disappear and his pants start to droop. He quickly sat down on the ground and was glad he did so as next thing he knew, James’ pants fell right down to the ground. Everyone started laughing again and even Sirius cracked a smile as James quickly righted his slacks.

 

Professor Flitwick quickly turned to face them, forgetting the group of Ravenclaw girls he was helping. He glared at James who was trying to look inconspicuous as he held up his pants.

 

Sirius thought he saw the small blonde Ravenclaw from before smirk, but it was gone before he could really tell.

 

Sirius didn’t get a chance to speak with Lily, though he was sure she had something to do with the prank.

 

James was fuming by the time they left charms. They had lost their shoes, socks, shirts, ties, belts, and now cardigans. Luckily Flitwick didn’t see their bare chests as they ran out of class. All they were wearing now were trousers and robes.

 

*******

“It was that Ravenclaw git! I know it!” Sirius screamed as they got back to their dormitory.

 

“Who?” James asked as he re-dressed from the clothes that were back on their beds.

 

“The blonde one, he’s always with Evans!”

 

“How do you know?” Peter asked.

 

“I just do,” Sirius answered. There was just something about the kid that made it obvious it was _him_ torturing the boys.

 

“Why would it be him? None of us even know his name!” James shouted as he fell onto his bed.

 

“I don’t know. He’s mates with Evans, isn’t he? And she hates us.”

 

James shrugged. “Still seems odd, he’s probably gone through a lot of trouble. I don’t even know how he’s pulled it off.”

 

“We’ll just have to get him back, wont we?”

 

Sirius and James both looked over at Peter and then at one another. Sirius smirked at James, who then said a quiet, “Of course, Pete.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've done two chapters in one day, because I'm going away at the end of the week (Wed-Monday) so I'll be gone for a while, so why not have some extra chapters? Thanks for reading. :)


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Three chapters in two days. Enjoy!

“Lily, I think they know it was me,” Remus whispered as he slid into a seat next to her at their table in the library.

 

“What?” She didn’t look up at him, continuing the sentence she was writing.

 

“Rem is paranoid,” Leo commented as he dropped his bag on the other side of the table. Remus and Lily both winced at the loud noise.

 

“I swear, every class I have with them they’re staring right at me!”

 

Remus had noticed the looks he was receiving from the first year Gryffindor boys during their shared classes. It made him beyond uncomfortable. He couldn’t afford to have people spend extra attention on him.

 

It had already been a nightmare trying to explain how he got a massive and, frankly quite scary looking scar on his face in the middle of a school week. It hadn’t helped matters that it had now been a month and the scar hadn’t faded, though Remus knew it wouldn’t. It was a cursed scar, after all.

 

“It’s been like a month, Remus. I’m sure you’re just imagining things,” Lily sighed as she flipped the book a few pages and then looked up at him. “Not to sound rude, but they don’t even know who you are, right? You’ve never spoken to any of them.”

 

Remus thought about it, she was right. Maybe they just thought it was odd a Ravenclaw spent so much time with a Gryffindor. That was possible. His fellow Ravenclaws thought it odd that he spent so much time with Lily. Leo typically just followed him when he went to the library, but no one thought it odd that he was with Remus and Lily because he also spent time with the other members of his house.

 

Maybe Remus just needed to be more inconspicuous. He needed to act like a normal Ravenclaw. It wasn’t like his house members got up to any trouble or anything. They typically just studied a lot, which is what he did with Lily and Leo anyway.

 

Remus heaved a sigh and Leo looked up at him with a questioning look. He just waved his hand as if to say _it’s nothing._

“Remus, it’s you’re birthday, next week, correct?” Lily asked.

 

“Yea… how did you–“

 

“I make it my business to know my friends’ birthdays,” she chuckled.

 

“Well, mine is in July, thank you in advance for your letter and gift,” Leo smirked at them.

 

Both Lily and Remus rolled their eyes.

 

“Well, what would you like to do? I doubt it will be nice enough yet to have a picnic outside, though I know being outside it your favorite.”

 

“We don’t have to do anything. I’m perfectly fine spending my birthday just like any other day.” Remus smiled at her and she looked a little annoyed.

 

“Evans!”

 

All three first years whipped their heads to the side to see a panting James Potter.

 

“Yes, Potter? What do you want?” Lily had a nasty look on her face and Remus nearly laughed.

 

“Can I borrow your history of magic notes from Thursday? I fell asleep and I didn’t realize that class was going to part of the exam.” He was standing right behind Remus now, who felt uncomfortable with the closeness of the other boy.

 

“Why don’t you ask one of the other idiots to borrow their notes?” Lily asked with her eyebrows raised and a hand resting on her hip.

 

“Sirius never takes notes. He says he has a photographic memory, whatever. And Pete spent the period tying my shoelaces together...” James flushed a little as Lily laughed at the memory of him falling on his face after class.

 

“Oh alright,” she sighed. James held out his hand and she shook her head. “No, you’re to copy them here so I know you wont loose them.”

 

Lily pointed towards an empty chair at the table and James gave it a disgusted look before he sat down. Remus was sure Potter never spent any time in the library.

 

Lily rifled around in her bag and found the notes. She handed them over and the James let out a small cough and asked if he could have some parchment and a quill. Lily just glared at him until Remus took pity and with a sigh produced a quill and piece of parchment for the boy.

 

James gave him a small smile. “Thanks, Er–“ he looked at him questioningly.

 

“It’s Remus.”

 

“Okay, thank you, Remus.”

 

Lily rolled her eyes and then turned to look at Remus, continuing their conversation from before. “Okay, your birthday is on Friday but maybe we can have a nice breakfast on Saturday?”

 

“Madam Pince will never let us eat in here,” Leo commented.

 

“No, no not in here,” Lily laughed a little. “We don’t have to do everything in the library, you know.”

 

Remus rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day. “Then what do you propose, Ms. Evans?”

 

“We can collect food at the Great Hall and then go eat in one of the empty classrooms?”

 

“Yes, because Remus would love to spend his birthday and Saturday back in a classroom when he doesn’t have to,” Leo lamented with a wave of his hand, dismissing the idea.

 

Remus just laughed at his two friends.

 

James sat there observing the conversation as he copied Evans’ notes. He didn’t really realize how friendly they all were. James never really spoke with people in the other houses. Honestly, he didn't speak much to anyone except Sirius and Peter. It was odd Lily always seemed to be with members of other houses and never really the Gryffindors.

 

“How about we sneak Lily into Ravenclaw tower?” Remus whispered.

 

James, who was trying to pretend like he wasn’t listening suddenly quirked his head. _Interesting_.

 

So, Remus was a little bit of a rebel, after all. Maybe Sirius was right. The three of them had been trying to figure out who had pulled the clothes prank on them for over a month and Sirius wouldn’t shut up about it being the ‘Ravenclaw bloke.’

 

As James listened to them talk, they gave nothing else away and he was slightly upset to leave them.

 

*******

Friday, March 10th passed with very little excitement, just the way Remus liked. He received a letter and a box full of chocolate frogs from his parents during the morning post. Leo gave him three new muggle novels and Lily said she wanted to wait until the next day to give him his present.

 

Remus was sure he got an Outstanding on his history of magic exam and also got an Outstanding on the potions paper he had turned in last week. It was a pretty great day.

 

Saturday, the next day however is when life as he knew it changed. Not to be over dramatic, but it did honestly change everything.

 

Leo and Remus managed to get Lily into the Ravenclaw common room and they were eating some of the chocolate frogs his parents had sent while playing a round of exploding snap with some of the other Ravenclaw first years. Remus was soon out and so was Lily.

 

Lily handed over a lovely box wrapped in shimmering gold paper for him to open while softly singing happy birthday.

 

Remus smiled as he took the lid off the box to see it filled with some sort of wizarding chocolate he’d never heard of before.

 

Behind Lily, Leo got singed by the cards and let out a yell. Lily quickly turned to make sure he was alright while Remus went to bite into the candy with a quick, “thanks for the chocolate, Lils.”

 

And that was when horror truly struck.

 

Lily swiveled around to face Remus so fast that she gave herself whiplash. There was a whispered, “I didn’t get you chocolate!”

 

Before anyone really knew what was happening Remus was breathing fire, _literally._ He started yelling, then Lily started yelling, then everyone in the common room was yelling as flames kept spurting from Remus’ mouth.

 

“WATER. HURRY!” Leo was screaming as a couple of prefects ran over. One focused on putting out the fire before it could cause any damage while the other conjured up a glass and filled it with water with the wave of her wand.

 

A few minutes later the entire common room was silent as the prefects looked over the chocolate Remus had had, whispering about where it possibly could have come from. They’d never seen it in Hogsmeade and had no clue where it came from.

 

Suddenly Lily jumped up from where she was trying to comfort Remus who had started to cry after the whole ordeal.

 

“THOSE IDIOTS!”

 

Leo looked at her questionably. Remus still had his face in his hands as he silently cried. He’d been so terrified of what was happening. He was also still too scared it would happen again if he even opened his mouth.

 

“Potter and the others! They must have switched the presents! I had gotten Remus a new set of color-changing quills!” She then bent back down to Remus and whispered so that only he and Leo would hear, “It’s their payback. It’s because we made their clothes disappear. Oh Remus, I’m so sorry.”

 

“What do we do? That was horrible!” Leo said as he continued rubbing circles into Remus’ back. Remus hadn’t moved yet.

 

They heard Remus take in a shuttering breath and then he lifted his head to look Lily in the eye. “We’re going to get them back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There probably won't be a new chapter tomorrow, as I'll be stuck doing internship stuff all day, but there will be one of Wednesday. I then will be gone for a few days (Im going to Universal Studios! Whoop back to Hogwarts!)   
> Anyway, hope you liked the new chapter! See ya soon. :)


	10. Chapter Ten

Lily Evans was bloody terrifying. That was the only thought that would cross Sirius’ mind for what he feared may be the rest of his life.

 

She had come storming through the portrait hole late Saturday night after Sirius and his friends had been impatiently waiting all day to see how their prank on Lupin had gone. Sirius had only just learned of the boy’s name a few days ago as matter of fact.

 

But that night when Evans came barreling through the common room looking like _she_ was about to spit fire, Sirius had started to actually regret what they’d done to the Ravenclaw for a second, only a second though, because it was still kind of funny.

 

She had screamed and screamed at them until she was out of breath and red in the face. She’d also pulled her wand on them but Sirius was pretty confident that she didn’t know any good jinxes just yet. She had said the words “How dare you?” so many times that Sirius thought she’d forgotten how to say anything else.

 

It was her last words that scared all three of the boys the most though.

 

“You’re going to pay for it.”

 

Then she’d stormed off. It’s now been over a month and Lily Evans, along with what seemed to be the entire Ravenclaw first year class, had not so much as looked in their direction since. Ludo Bagman, unfortunately, was the only one to speak to any of them and he only spoke to Pete solely because he was his potions partner.

 

James had gotten to muttering to himself, “Just do it already” about twenty times a day but the retaliation prank hadn’t come just yet. The boys spent a month and a half looking over their shoulders thinking that something was going to happen. They didn’t trust anyone to give them food and only served themselves.

 

Just when Sirius was starting to believe that _this_ was the prank, the constant anxiety over waiting for the final shoe to drop, it happened.

 

Sirius woke up on what should have been a very nice and warm April day to a freezing cold dorm room. In fact the only reason he had woken up was because of how cold he was. At first he had thought that his blankets had just fallen off during the night but when he realized he was still wrapped tightly in them, he sat up.

 

_Why was it so cold?_

“Pete, James, what’s going on? D-did you leave a window open?” He asked through the curtains around his four poster. His teeth were chattering a little.

 

Neither of them answered so he guessed they were still asleep. He moved his curtains to see if he could close the window but was surprised by his surroundings. Everything in the dorm room was completely frozen other than the three beds.

 

The desks looked like they were made of ice. Their trunks were covered in frost and there were small icicles attached to the ceiling. Sirius gasped and saw his breath in front of him.

 

“JAMES!” He shouted with a shaky voice.

 

“What on earth do you–“ He heard James grumble and pause. “Why do I feel like I’m in a freezer?”

 

“Because you are!” Sirius shouted. He saw the curtains around his friend’s bed shift and then a bleary-eyed James Potter poked his head out. He looked around with squinty eyes and then reached out a hand to franticly search for his glasses.

 

James let out a yelp had his hand met the ice-covered bedside table. Peter took this moment to wake up with a shout of his own.

 

They spent the next several minutes freaking out about what to do. None of them wanted to get out of bed and walk on the frozen floor but they didn’t know how to get rid of the ice. Sirius, who slept with his wand under his pillow was the only one with his wand since the other two had theirs frozen to their bedside tables. James was also without his glasses as those had also frozen to the table.

 

“I don’t know any warming spells! How am I to heat the room up to melt the ice?” Sirius asked frantically. He was surprised none of the other Gryffindors had come rushing into their room yet, what with all the screaming the boys were doing.

 

“I don’t know!” James yelled. “Use _incendio._ The flames will melt the ice!”

 

“Yea, and burn the entire room down!” Peter squeaked nervously. He was sitting at the edge of his bed staring at them with wide eyes and chewing his bottom lip.

 

“Well, I think I can control it… probably,” Sirius said quietly.

 

James and Peter shared a nervous look.

 

“Okay…. What do I direct it at exactly?” Sirius looked up at James, who began squinting around the ice covered dorm and then shrugged.

 

Sirius sighed and then pointed his wand at the ground by his bed muttering _please work, please work, please work._

 

He took a deep breath and then whispered the spell. A few flames sputtered out of his wand and hit the ground. He wasn’t confident enough, so the spell wasn’t working properly.

 

Sirius continued to try the spell but it just wouldn’t do anything and the floor was still frozen solid. After an hour of throwing flames at the floor, Sirius gave up.

 

“We’re going to miss breakfast,” Peter sighed.

 

“Breakfast? We’re going to miss class! McGonagall is going to kill us. It’s double Transfiguration this morning,” James complained.

 

Sirius grumbled to himself. Getting detention was so not worth all of this. He squared his shoulders and turned to look at James. “Well, what’s our next move?”

 

“What do you mean what’s our next move? I think we’re stuck until it melts or until someone comes to let us out,” James said, annoyed.

 

“No, what are we gonna do to Lupin. This is his fault, you know?”

 

“Why don’t we apologize?” Peter asked.

 

James and Sirius both ignored him.

 

“I don’t know, but it’s got to be something huge. We are going to end up with points lost and a bunch of detention.”

 

Sirius just nodded at James. Peter let out a sigh and then flopped onto his back.

 

Sirius and James spent several hours brainstorming as the ice slowly melted around them. As soon as the floor started having dry patches James jumped up with a flourish and stumbled out of the room, wrenching the thawing door open, without bothering to free his glasses. He had been complaining about needing the toilet for the last hour.

 

Soon Peter and Sirius were rushing out the door following him to the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, changed my mind about not posting today. I was wearing a Sirius Black t-shirt & the next chapter was a Sirius chapter so I was like... yup necessary. Anyway, It's a shortish one, I know. So, depending on what work I get done for my internship today, I may be able to edit the next one in order to post it tomorrow. If not then maybe Thursday before I leave for Florida.   
> We've got like two chapters of first year left, so yep let's see how that goes. Thanks for reading! Lemme know what ya think, thanks!


	11. Chapter Eleven

Remus had been pacing a corridor near the library for about ten minutes. Lily was running very late to meet him. He wasn’t sure why he was so panicky today, sometimes he just had bad days. Today was one of them. And it was about to get worse.

 

It was May, their last month in school before exams started in early June. Remus wasn’t too worried about classes as he studied more than the average person, so he knew that wasn’t what was stressing him out.

 

He also wasn’t stressing over the growing prank war he had started with the Gryffindor boys because Pettigrew had come to him a few days after the frozen room prank and told Remus that he was really sorry about the chocolate and that he wouldn’t be a part of any of the future pranks.

 

So, Remus felt lost over why he was feeling so _off_. He knew he was nearing the point of being stressed over the fact that he was stressed. That was never a good thing.

 

It was a few days after the April full moon, where he had messed up his right knee a little so he was walking funny. It didn’t really hurt anymore and his walking had gotten better but he knew he must look slightly crazy. To add to the craziness he was quietly muttering to himself about which essays were coming up and when they were due.

 

Sometimes it helped Remus to say things out loud in order to remember them. So, in all honestly, he’d say what happened next was completely his fault.

 

He was pacing in a weird miss-matched way because of his knee and he was muttering nonsense about herbology when a group of seventh year Slytherins walked by. This was apparently a recipe for disaster.

 

Remus didn’t even see them. He was too busy looking at his hands, which were waving about as he counted off which assignments he’d done and which ones he still had left.

 

He did of course hear them as they started to snigger though. He immediately stopped and looked up at them with a frown. There were four of them just staring at him.

 

They looked disgusted at the sight of him.

 

“Can’t they at least keep the _crazy_ mudbloods out of here?” One of the girls sneered. Remus remembered her name,  _Bellatrix Black_.

 

Remus felt his skin heating up.

 

“It’s _pathetic,_ ” the blonde boy next to her spat. Remus jerked backward and felt his heart speed up to an alarming rate. He felt frozen and couldn’t move or look away as the older students leered at him.

 

Remus had heard of some of the students being hexed in the hall by some of the older Slytherins. He knew he wouldn’t be able to defend himself if they decided to attack him.

 

They just laughed as Remus cowered and started shaking.

 

“ _Loony Lupin,_ ” Bellatrix hissed and then let out a cackling laugh. The rest of them laughed along with her.

 

Remus suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. Soon they grew bored and walked away still laughing about _Loony Lupin_.

 

He slid down the wall and brought his knees up to his chest. He tried to take a few deep breaths but they were all short and frantic. His skin felt like it was on fire and he was still shaking.

 

_Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry._

But of course he felt his eyes start to water and his throat ran dry as he tried to swallow around the growing lump.

 

Lily found him minutes later. Without saying anything she sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. They sat there for what felt like years until Remus’ tears dried up and he was able to breathe normally again.

 

*******

“I HATE THEM!” Leo was storming around the dorm room waving his hands franticly and looking very red in the face. His curly black hair was flopping all over the place as he stomped around.

 

Remus, who was sitting cross-legged on his trunk just sighed, already over the argument.

 

Lily, who they had snuck into Ravenclaw tower again was sitting on Remus’ bed rifling through his transfiguration book, which they were meant to be studying but the only thing any of them could think of was what had happened to Remus the day before.

 

“We have to do something. Retaliate,” Leo commented and jumped up onto his own bed.

 

“What? Start a prank war with the Slytherin seventh years? Yea no thanks,” Remus said with a roll of his eyes. Honestly, he just wanted to forget about it. He was already uncomfortable about the fact that Lily had seen him in the middle of one of his attacks and now Leo knew all about it too.

 

“The idiots are already enough to handle, thank you very much.” Lily slammed the book she was flipping through shut and put it down on the bed with a pointed look at Leo.

 

Leo sighed again. “It’s their turn too, they’re going to do something dumb again soon. Sorry, Remus.”

 

Remus just shrugged. The Gryffindor boys were the least of his problems right now. He’d honestly not really thought about their growing prank war for a while.

 

“Maybe they wont do anything?” Lily asked. She turned to Remus. “Didn’t Peter say he was backing out? Maybe the other two will take a hint.”

 

“Peter? Is that the lumpy one?”

 

“ _Leo!”_ Lily hissed with a stern look. Remus was trying not to crack a smile. He knew Leo was only trying to make him feel better.

 

Leo just smirked at Remus.

 

*******

The next morning Remus walked into the bathroom to a very unwanted surprise.

 

“Very original,” he sighed as he took in his brand new bright red hair in the mirror. What a stupid prank. They’d already pulled it early last term.

 

When his roommates saw him come back to get ready, Bagman just laughed and walked away to do his own morning routine and Leo looked at him with a sour face.

 

“Why not me? I’m in the group, right?” He pouted at Remus.

 

Remus just started laughing really hard and Leo smiled, glad he could cheer him up.

 

At breakfast, Lily was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, which wasn’t even the strangest thing, because her hair which normally looked as red as Remus’ was that day, was bright blonde. The boys had switched their hair colors.

 

Remus sat next to Lily with a smile.

 

“You’re not annoyed?” she whispered.

 

Remus shook his head. "No, this is nothing really.” He turned and beamed at her. “I make a brilliant redhead.” He finished with a dramatized flip of his fringe. All three friends laughed. They decided to go about their day as if nothing had changed and didn’t see James and Sirius rolling their eyes two tables over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the best chapter in the world, also sorry it's a bit short. We've got one left of first year after this! I may post it tomorrow or it may have to wait until I'm back from [Hogwarts] Monday! See you soonish.   
> Thanks for reading!


	12. Chapter Twelve

Sirius was feeling depressed. He didn’t want to leave Hogwarts and go home. There was nothing on earth that made him want to leave all this behind even for just a short couple of months. The thought of returning to his parents was keeping him up at night all throughout the last few weeks of term.

 

He was confident in all of his classes and knew he did very well in all his exams. He was happy with all the mahem he had gotten up to with the boys, except maybe that last prank on Lupin and Evans, that hadn’t exactly gone to plan. They had expected more of a reaction but they didn’t even act different what so ever.

 

Then James and Sirius had spent the rest of term scared Lupin would return fire in some way or another but nothing came of it. Pettigrew was fine being included in everything as long as it wasn’t against Lupin, he said he was scared of the boy.

 

It was the last feast and somehow Hufflepuff had won the house cup. No one had really seen that coming. If anything everyone assumed it would just be Ravenclaw as it had been the last two years.

 

The Slytherins kept getting points off, and more, for being awful to muggleborns and of course Sirius was a huge part of Gryffindor not having too many points.

 

The end of year fest was still a lot of fun though. Sirius ate all of his favorite foods, messed around with James, and jinxed Bella to fall off the bench, it was great. The meal took Sirius’ mind off of going home for a few hours and that’s more than he could ever really ask for.

 

Now though, he was in his bed staring at the ceiling with a soundtrack of Peter and James’ deep breathing. Instead of thinking about what was sure to be an extremely horrible summer, he started day dreaming about being a second year and all the mayhem he would get up to with his friends.

 

Soon the daydreams turned into real dreams of wild runs through the forbidden forest with centaurs chasing after him and James battling the giant squid and so many other impossibilities.

 

He fell asleep with a smile on his face.

 

*******

 

Sirius woke up feeling very off. It was far too bright in the room for one thing. It was also kind of loud though he wasn’t able to place where exactly the sound was coming from. It felt far too early for him to be awake and he knew the sunrise it what had woken him up and then he heard James yell.

 

It wasn’t a scared yell, so Sirius wasn’t too bothered but he was still interested. James sounded mad, beyond mad.

 

Sirius ripped his curtains back and swore under his breath as he took in the sight.

 

_Lupin had gotten them again._

They were outside. Both of them and their four posters were sitting in the middle of the quidditch pitch. James’ face was red and Sirius looked at him.

 

How on earth had Lupin, a first year, gotten them and their beds outside without waking them up? Or even getting caught by a professor? It was ridiculous.

 

As soon as James jumped out of bed, the bed disappeared.

 

“HOW–“

 

“WHAT IS–“

 

Sirius and James started yelling as the same time. Sirius also jumped out of his bed and it too disappeared. The boys looked at each other.

 

“How does he _do_ it?” James whispered, shaking his head.

 

“I have no idea.” Sirius started trudging back to the castle and James rushed after him. “It’s bloody brilliant.”

 

“We should get him to work with us and not against us.”

 

Sirius just nodded in response and they made their way back to the dorm, but not before getting a scolding from McGonagall, who caught them halfway up to the tour.

 

*******

Sirius, James, and Peter were waiting in line to catch a carriage to Hogsmeade station when they heard hissing and spitting. Sirius turned around and saw a large group of Slytherins, his cousin Bellatrix right at the head. It sounded an awful lot like they were saying, “Loopy Loony Lupin”

 

Sirius looked around and saw poor little Lupin, who must have dropped his bag, bending down to pick up a couple of books. The Slytherins were laughing and jeering at him. Sirius then realized one of them had probably jinxed him.

 

He looked over at James, who had his head cocked to the side and was staring at the scene.

 

The Slytherins got up close to Lupin now and Bella spat something at him and he jumped backwards. The Slytherins laughed.

 

Malfoy, who was a year younger than Bella, stepped up to Lupin and whispered a spell, Sirius was too far away to hear it but he saw Lupin knocked to the ground. The Slytherins all walked away laughing and got onto the carriages.

 

Before he knew what he was doing Sirius was running over to Lupin and offering his hand. He’d never actually spoken to the boy but they’d been pranking each other all term. It was a little odd to be this close to him.

 

Lupin just looked up at him terrified. Sirius wondered if that was what _he_ looked like when his mother came after him.

 

“Are you okay?” He asked.

 

Lupin just stared at his hand with the same scared expression.

 

“Come on, join us in our carriage. We’ve got room for one more,” he offered the boy.

 

Remus didn’t take his hand but got himself up and all of his stuff back together. He didn’t say a word but joined the boys in their carriage.

 

“Hi Remus,” James smiled at him when they were all seated. “Ready for the holiday?”

 

He just nodded in reply.

 

Sirius felt bad for him. He knew a few people called him Loony Lupin because he was always sick and spent every second in the library, mostly by himself. Sirius didn’t realize how bad it had gotten.

 

The second they got out of the carriage Remus jumped out with his stuff and rushed off to the train. The three remaining boys all shared a confused look then went off to the train themselves and found a nice compartment.

 

Soon Sirius was back to thinking about his horrible family. He didn’t want to go home, he would live at Hogwarts full time if it was allowed. He didn’t even know who was going to pick him up at the platform. It would probably be Kreacher, who would then lock him up in his room when he returned. Sirius sighed as he started a mental countdown to September first and when he could come back to Hogwarts again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't great, sorry. Just trying to get through year 1. In other news, I spent the last two days at Universal Studios and in the Wizarding World and it honestly just made me wanna come back and write more. I've also had five Butterbeers and I do not recommend doing that in 24 hours.... not a good idea.
> 
> New chapter in a few days.


	13. Thirteen

Summer was rather boring for Remus. He spent a lot of time helping his mother in the garden and walking through the forest around their house. He enjoyed spending so much time outside but always felt like there was just nothing to do.

 

He had completed all of his summer work within the first week of break and had completely read _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ by the third week.

 

He had exchanged letters with both Leo and Lily and even a couple with Ludo. Remus lived a bit too far away from any of his friends to visit them and his father wouldn’t allow him to use the floo power as it was a bit expensive to replace and the Lupins weren’t too well off.

 

Whenever the weather was abysmal Remus would spend his days in the library down in the village. He had been surprised with a new bike when he came home from school for the summer and used it to trek the five miles down to the village as often as he could.

 

Lily and Leo had written out a very long list of muggle books they thought Remus would enjoy and he had read nearly the entire list by the time September 1st rolled around again.

 

Remus was feeling great about the new school year. The last full moon was over a week ago so he felt fine. He had a new tan and didn’t look quite so pale and sickly and he had finally grown a couple inches and knew he was about average height-wise now.

 

He was sitting in a train compartment by himself reading a very battered copy of _Fahrenheit 451_ when the compartment slid open to reveal Severus Snape, Joseph Mulciber, and Zacharias Nott, all people Remus would be fine never, ever talking to in his life, let alone right now.

 

“Oh! Hello Loony, didn’t realize this was the crazy carriage,” Mulciber spoke. The other two smirked.

 

Remus turned back to his book ignoring them.

 

“Come on Loopy Lupin, how was your summer? Weren’t in rolled in the loony bin yet? Shame,” he continued.

 

Nott reached over and grabbed the book out of Remus’ hands. “What’s this rubbish?”

 

Remus just glared at them, knowing they’d grow bored soon and move on or Lily would come and make a fuss until they left. He hoped for the former.

 

Lily had said she invited Snape to ride in their carriage with them, she would be a bit heart broken to see who he was spending time with now.

 

Nott ripped a page out of the book and then made a comment on how it was already a piece of crap anyway so it doesn’t matter. He dropped the book and the three boys walked back out of the cabin.

 

Remus took a deep breath and picked up the poor book that looked even more battered now. He had spent a week’s worth of allowance in order to buy it at a second hand shop.

 

The next person to open up the cabin door was a much more welcome sight.

 

Remus smiled up at Leo as he sat down across from him.

 

“Hullo, Rem. How was your summer?”

 

They talked about their summers, which was mostly Leo talking about his trip to the states with his parents to visit one of his aunts who lived in California. Soon Lily came in with a face nearly as red as her hair. The boys looked at each other then up and Lily, who sighed in response.

 

“Mulciber and Nott are both truly awful people. I was speaking to Severus about what a pain Petunia was being and they came up and said some quite rude things and then pulled Severus away before either of us could respond.” She let out a huff as she plopped down next to Remus.

 

“I tried to see if he was alright but Nott slammed their door right in my face!” She then turned and glared at Remus as if it was his fault and he quickly looked away almost feeling like somehow it was.

 

Leo let out a murmured, “sorry” and Remus nodded, still not looking at her.

 

She sighed again and Remus turned back to her. “They’re right pricks. Don’t worry about it, Lil.”

 

Lily gasped as his language and Leo started laughing. Remus smiled at them, glad to be back with his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry this is like the shortest chapter ever, next one will be longer! I promise! Thanks for reading. :)


	14. Fourteen

“Hey, so you know Lupin?” James asked from his bed.

 

“Obviously.” Sirius rolled his eyes without even looking at him and continued rifling through his trunk.

 

“You reckon he’s alright?”

 

“What?” Sirius, who had finally found his tie looked up at his friend.

 

“Well, I told you about overhearing the Slytherins being rude to him yesterday. Do you think he deals with that a lot?”

 

Sirius shrugged in response then walked to the mirror and put his tie on.

 

“I just…” James paused and ran a hand through his hair. “I feel bad, I guess. I think he’s a cool bloke.”

 

Sirius laughed. “You’ve had like half a conversation with him.”

 

“Whatever,” James sighed. “Well, Snape and his mates are gits.”

 

Sirius nodded.

 

“And we should do something in return!” James jumped up from his bed.

 

Sirius turned around much more alert now with the conversation turning to a topic he was much more interested in. “Yes! A prank on the Slytherins is the perfect back to school treat.”

 

James smiled at him as Peter came out of the bathroom and asked if the boys were ready to head to breakfast.

 

*******

“Let’s blow up the pumpkin juice, I can jinx it from here I’m sure of it,” Sirius whispered. He aimed his wand at Snape’s glass but James clamped a hand over it.

 

James shook his head slightly. “Not now, look McGonagall’s handing out timetables.”

 

In fact, she was so close Sirius jumped when he saw her. Within a minute she was standing directly behind him.

 

“Hiya, Minnie. Nice summer?” Sirius smirked up at the professor.

 

She rolled her eyes and tapped a piece of parchment with her wand and handed it to him with a quick, “That’ll be five points, Black.”

 

James let out a groan as he accepted his own identical timetable and lightly swatted Sirius in the head.

 

“Professor, when are the quidditch try outs?” He asked her.

 

She had an almost but not quite there smile as she told him to ask William Bell, the current captain.

 

“Can’t wait until you’re finally on the team then you can talk about quidditch to someone who isn’t me,” Sirius drawled as he went to take a biscuit.

 

“You know him being on the team will only make him talk about it more,” Peter spoke while chewing on his food.

 

James rolled his eyes at the both of them. “Shut up.”

 

Sirius barked out a laugh.

 

“You should both try out too!” James exclaimed.

 

“I’m rubbish on a broom,” Peter pouted.

 

“Yea, I’m good thanks,” Sirius said.

 

“Come on! It’d be great! They need a keeper and chasers. I’ll be a chaser of course.”

 

“I’m more of a beater’s build. I’ll try out next year after the Prewetts are gone, deal?”

 

James nodded.

 

“Can I hex the Slytherins now?” Sirius whined.

 

James looked down the table and saw McGonagall caught up with one of the upper years. He turned and nodded of Sirius. “I’ll get Nott’s and you do Snape’s. It’ll cover more victims.”

 

“I wish you wouldn’t refer to them as victims,” Peter sighed, propping his chin in his hand.

 

James and Sirius ignored him and took aim at the glasses of pumpkin juice across the hall.

 

“One,” James whispered.

 

“Two,” Sirius continued.

 

Peter looked away.

 

“Three.”

 

There was a small explosion on the other side of the hall and both boys stowed their wands quickly and tried to pull surprised faces as multiple Slytherins were covered un the orange, sticky substance and screamed.

 

They ended up getting a detention each from McGonagall because they couldn’t keep the smiles off their faces as they watched Snape storm out of the Great Hall.

 

“Maybe Snape will have to actually take a shower for the first time in his life,” Sirius quipped as they walked to Charms shortly after.

 

Lily Evans soon came stomping up to them outside the classroom. “Gods, you two are awful. What did Severus ever do to you?”

 

“Honestly, I just find his presence annoying,” Sirius said with a shrug.

 

Evans let out a huff and then stomped to the other side of the hallway. James and Peter chuckled.

 

*******

“So, earlier when we were talking about Lupin?” Sirius questioned at lunch.

 

James looked up from his sandwich and nodded for him to continue.

 

“Well, he got us on the last day of term so, does that mean it’s our turn to get him back?” he asked.

 

Peter groaned. “Lupin’s an alright bloke and a bloody genius, can’t we leave him be?”

 

James laughed. “I kind of agree with Pete, Lupin scares me a bit.” Sirius rolled his eyes and James continued, “Why don’t we actually become mates? I mean he could probably help us get the Slytherins.”

 

Sirius seemed to consider this, cocking his head to the side and tapping his chin in thought. He made a humming sound and James took that as a maybe.

 

“At any rate, maybe we should talk to him? Figure out where to go from here,” Peter offered. James nodded in agreement and Sirius showed no signs of disagreeing and just continued eating.

 

They decided to speak to him after transfiguration that afternoon but never got the chance as Lupin was held up by McGonagall asking to speak to him when class was over.

 

“Wonder what that’s about,” Sirius whispered to James next to him as they gathered their things.

 

“Pettigrew, if I could hold you for a moment,” McGonagall asked as Lupin walked up to her desk.

 

The three boys shared a look and Peter looked scared as he walked up to her desk and stood next to Lupin. James and Sirius lingered to wait for him until McGonagall waved her hands at them.

 

“Pettigrew is perfectly fine, I assure you. Please wait outside,” she dismissed them.

 

A few minutes later Peter came out of the room looking shaken and James rushed over to his side. Sirius, who had slid to the floor across the hall slowly stood up bracing himself on the wall.

 

“Apparently, I barely passed the exam last term. She’s asked Lupin to tutor me?” Peter said, sounding like a question.

 

“Tough luck, mate.” Sirius clapped him on the back and James nodded.

 

“We could have lent a hand. You know transfiguration is my best subject,” James said and they started walking back to Gryffindor tower.

 

“Wonder why she didn’t ask one of us,” Sirius commented as he slung an arm around Peter’s shoulders.

 

“Reckon she thought we’d make a muck out of it,” James laughed. Peter nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hope you enjoyed the new chapter. 
> 
> I've made a tumblr, where I just post a ton of Wolfstar & Jily crap but if you've ever got questions of requests then please feel free to ask over there if ya like. It's the first time I'm using tumblr in like 8 years so bare with me as I re-learn lol the tumblr is: accio--mischief


	15. Fifteen

September had gone perfectly fine, or as perfectly fine as any first month back at school could go. Remus spent a lot of time with his friends sitting out in the sun, while it lasted, reading and studding. He’d been flattered when asked to tutor two different students in two different subjects and also the full moon in late September went really smoothly and he hadn’t needed to miss any classes.

 

Then October had happened. Fall, which was usually Remus’ favorite time of year was really not going so well. The Slytherin boys in his year (and some above, actually) had grown even more horrible with their name-calling and teasing. He knew he got off easy though as a lot of the younger muggleborns had actually been hexed in the hallways. Everyone knew what was going on but no one had ever spoken up so the bullies never got in trouble.

 

Everyone was too scared it would only get worse.

 

It was a few days before the October full moon and Remus was feeling drained. He knew his skin was blotchy and there were bags under his eyes. He knew he was being irritable and short with people. It had also rained for the last week an a half so he hadn’t been able to go outside recently. He was just not having a good few days.

 

He was about to spend the next hour watching Peter Pettigrew running around the empty transfiguration classroom after a beetle trying to turn it into a button. What a brilliant way to spend a Thursday afternoon.

 

Just as Remus took out his notebook and propped it on a desk Pettigrew came scurrying in out of breath with his dirty blonde hair sticking up every which way.

 

“Hey Lupin, sorry I’m a little late!” He wheezed as he sat down at another desk.

 

“I’ve told you, Peter, you can call me Remus, I really don’t mind,” Remus gave him a small smile.

 

“I know, but you’re kind of a professor right?” Peter started digging around in his bag for his wand and notebook as Remus started laughing.

 

“I mean, not really. I’m just supposed to help you understand the spells a little more. I’m not really teaching you.”

 

Peter gave him a slow nod.

 

Just as Remus predicted, Pettigrew’s spell needed some work. They both ended up running around the class room attempting to not loose the beetles that were making a bid for escape every time Peter missed the spell.

 

By the end of the hour Remus was completely out of breath in thanks to both running around too much but also laughing a lot. Peter was an okay bloke and was kind of funny at his own expense. Remus somehow enjoyed the afternoon and made him feel better even though he was even more tired than he had been before.

 

“Pete! Ready for supper?” Potter came bouncing into the classroom as Peter was laughing at a joke Remus had said. James gave them an odd look as Black came striding in behind him.

 

“Thanks, Remus! I think I’ve finally got it down,” Peter then turned to his two friends and showed them the small pile of buttons in his palm.

 

“Way to go, mate,” Potter said, patting him on the back. Black smiled at Peter with a nod, agreeing with his friend.

 

“Now, just knit me a lovely jumper or something to go with them,” Black said as he slung an arm over both of his friends shoulders. He then nodded at Remus, “Alright, Lupin?”

 

Remus smiled at the group, “Yea, and you?”

 

Black nodded with a smile.

 

“Hey lupin, you know if Bagman got on the quidditch team?” Potter asked.

 

Remus let out a small chuckle, “I think I’d be betraying house secrets if I told you.”

 

James barked out a laugh, “Yea, fair enough. Doesn’t matter though because I am on the team now, so we are taking the cup this year.”

 

Remus just smiled with a shake of his head. He’d grown fond of the minute or so of conversation every other week when the boys came to either see Peter off or collect him after their meeting.

 

“You heading down to supper, Lu– Remus?” Peter asked in a rush as Black started pulling the group out of the door.

 

Remus hesitated, he never spent more than a couple of minutes with the other boys and was still a little nervous that they’d realize it was their turn in the strange war they had created and pull something over on him.

 

The three boys were out the door and Remus realized he may have hesitated too long. _Oh well_.

 

*******

“Oh Remus!” Remus looked up from the book he was skimming to see Lily Evans running towards his hospital bed. “I heard you were in hospital again. How are you? Leo said you’d apparently fallen down the stairs last night?

 

Remus tried to hide the confusion on his face as he let out a shaky laugh and a nod. “Yea, tripped and woke up in the hospital wing last night. Pomfrey kept me to– to make sure I didn’t mess up something inside my head…. I think.”

 

_I wonder who came up with that alibi, probably Flitwick._

Lily sat on the edge of his bed with a pout. “Well, I brought you homework from every class except Herbology. Professor Sprout said you had already done work ahead for her class. Good timing I suppose.” She ran a hand over her braid and gave Remus a confused smile.

 

“Is your head okay?” She asked quietly.

 

“Oh… yes, the bruise will fade by the end of the day.”

 

Lily gave a slow nod and then seemed to shake herself out of her thoughts and turned back to him. “You missed Black getting a detention for putting a tripping hex on Sev. Poor Severus broke his nose and a prefect had to fix it.”

 

Remus tried not to smile at the thought of Snape falling over.

 

“How long a detention did he get?”

 

“Only the one, and 10 points off.”

 

“What’d Snape do to provoke him?” Remus asked.

 

Lily glared at him. “Nothing. Severus has done nothing wrong, Remus. Black and Potter are just bullies.”

 

Remus resisted rolling his eyes and hastily changed the subject, “During the quidditch match next week, want to sneak into Ravenclaw tower again? We can play chess with Ludo’s set. I’m sure he wont mind.”

 

Lily _did_ roll her eyes. “No, I hate his set. The pieces never listen to me. Let’s go to Gryffindor tower, you’ve never been.”

 

Remus looked doubtful. None of the Ravenclaws ever minded seeing Lily in the common room but how would the Gryffindors feel if he was there when they all came running back in after they beat Hufflepuff?

 

He shrugged and agreed to join her there next weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, lovely readers. I am longing for actual wolfstar and low-key crying bc we've still got a lil way to go... sad times. I'm thinking I may or may not do a little one shot in time for Rem's bday??? Not connected to this story at all, I have another AU in mind. Let me know if I should... or if you'd rather I just bang this one out and get us through second year?
> 
> Chat to me on tumblr if ya like: accio--mischief


	16. Sixteen

After knowing James for over a year, Sirius liked to think he knew him pretty well. He knew James’ favorite thing in the world was quidditch. He knew James grew up in an amazing and loving household. He also knew that the Potters’ were fairly well off. He knew James received his first real and professional level broom for his 11th birthday before starting Hogwarts and therefore had a lot of flying practice.

 

What Sirius did not know however, was just how phenomenal the boy was at _playing_ quidditch.

 

It was the first match of the term and Gryffindor was playing Hufflepuff. It was James’ first game on the team as the new chaser. Sirius was sitting in the stands with Peter and a few of the girls in their year. They were all excited to cheer James on and had made a large banner with a photo of a lion Mary MacDonald had drawn and “POTTER” flashing in bright red glitter.

 

Somehow James had ended up scoring six goals before anyone else on either team was able to even get close to scoring and the Gryffindor second years were going crazy. Sirius was feeling so strange every time James got a goal. He didn’t think he had honestly felt so proud of another person his entire life.

 

Hufflepuff scored two points and then the 5th year chaser, Theo Brown, scored another goal for Gryffindor. Then the game ended with the Gryffindor seeker, a 3rd year girl that Sirius didn’t know, caught the snitch.

 

The Gryffindors went wild in the stands and Sirius ran as fast as he could down the stairs to the pitch were all the players were landing. By the time he got there all the players were yelling and patting one another on the back and James was already running towards the entrance he knew Sirius would be coming from.

 

Sirius laughed as they leapt toward each other hugging midair.

 

“Did you _see_ me? Oh my Gods!” James was yelling as he clung to Sirius and they jumped up and down.

 

“You were bloody brilliant!” Sirius laughed.

 

They were soon completely surrounded by their entire house as everyone laughed and cheered. The captain, 7th year Bell was holding the small seeker on his shoulders while she waved the snitch around in her hand above her head.

 

The entire house paraded back up to the castle singing songs and cheering their way back to the common room.

 

Sirius was carrying James on his back when they entered the common room. Peter was ahead of him hoisting up the banner they had made. The common room was over flowing with rowdy Gryffindors as the upper years set up tables laden with food and drinks.

 

Sirius hung by James as he chatted with the rest of the quidditch team by the drink table. Sirius had gotten hit with a tickling jinx when he had reached for anything stronger than pumpkin juice. The prefects were all for having a good time but no one under 4th year was allowed to drink.

 

Sirius didn’t mind, he was already in such high spirits. He looked around the room trying to find Peter as he grew bored of the technical talk the team was having. He spotted Peter sitting on a couch with the rest of their year by the fireplace.

 

And oddly Lupin was with them laughing as Mary waved her hands around talking excitedly. Sirius walked over to the group.

 

“We have a traitor in our midst,” he said with a smirk as he sat on the arm of the couch next to Marlene McKinnon.

 

“I believe you played Hufflepuff today, and as you can see, I’m not wearing yellow. It doesn’t really go well with my complexion,” Remus chuckled. The other second years laughed and Sirius smiled.

 

“Fair enough. What brings you to _our_ celebration?” Sirius asked.

 

Evans, who was sitting on the opposite couch next to Lupin, rolled her eyes. “Leave him alone, Black. We’ve been here all day.”

 

Sirius quirked his head to the side as he looked at her. “You didn’t go to the match?”

 

“Don’t fancy quidditch much,” Remus replied with a shrug. Sirius just nodded slowly.

 

*******

Hours later and all the sixth and seventh years who had had far too much to drink had headed up to bed while everyone else headed down to the Great Hall for supper.

 

“You’re telling me you answer riddles in order to get to bed?” James asked, beyond confused.

 

Remus laughed. “Well, you whisper some random word to a crazy lady in a picture frame…”

 

“He’s got you there, Jamie,” Sirius sung as he skipped ahead of them. James rolled his eyes.

 

“Is everyone a major know-it-all?” James asked turning back to Remus.

 

“Am I a know-it-all?” he countered.

 

Lily and Peter both laughed as James scratched his chin in thought.

 

“Let him be, James!” Mary whined from behind them.

 

As they got closer to the hall James shoved his way in between Peter and Remus and slung an arm around Remus’ shoulder.

 

“So, Lupin… you want to sit with the winners at dinner?” James said waggling his eyebrows.

 

Remus laughed, “You can call me Remus, _Potter_.”

 

“Alright, alright.” James patted Remus on the back and let go of his shoulders.

 

“I reckon Ludo would just about explode if I sat with you all,” Remus laughed.

 

“Oh, who cares about Bagman?” Sirius said over his shoulder at them.

 

“I know he can be a bit… much but he’s my housemate, you know?” Remus said with a frown directed at Sirius’ back.

 

Sirius didn’t respond and continued walking.

 

Once they got to the hall Lily hugged Remus goodbye before he walked over to his own house sitting right next to Bagman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY IT'S SO SHORT. I SUCK. But it's almost the weekend so I'll have loads of time to update and work on more chapters.


	17. Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of posting two in a row so make sure you've read the one before this. Enjoy!

Remus grimaced as he ran a hand up and down his back.

 

“I know it’s a pretty bad one dear. I am sorry,” Pomfrey frowned down at him and held out a solvent. “I’m going to cover it in this healing potion. It’ll hopefully stop the pain.”

 

Remus winced as she applied the potion, trying not to cry out at the pain. When she was done she applied a bandage and gave him a shirt to put on.

 

“What was the excuse this month? My house mates for going to figure it out…” Remus sighed.

 

“You had to floo home in an emergency to see your sick mother. “

 

Remus nodded and accepted the glass of pumpkin juice she offered him.

 

“You’re to stay the rest of the day. I’ll check on you around dinnertime. Professor Flitwick dropped off all of your assignments so you may work on them if you like, but I’d rather you rest.

 

Remus, of course, reached over and started on his work.

 

*******

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Lily asked for the fifth time, two days later, as they sat in an abandoned classroom playing chess.

 

“I’m fine Lily,” Remus sighed again, for the fifth time.

 

She rolled her eyes. “Sure you are. You’ve only winced every time you’ve moved all day long.”

 

“ _Lily I’m fine._ ”

 

“Remus… _I know._ ” She looked down and away from him.

 

“So, why do you keep asking?” Remus looked up and saw she was hiding her face.

 

“No… Remus, _I know._ ” She still wouldn’t look at him.

 

Remus’ breath caught and he felt his heart speed up and his skin overheat.

 

“Know what?” his voice was much too high.

 

“I know why you’re always gone.” She looked up at him finally, her sad, bright green eyes meeting his amber. Remus abruptly stood, knocking over the table between him. He backed away from her as she jumped up too.

 

“I-I don’t k-know what you-u mean.” His voice was squeaking and his face was overheating and he felt like he was suffocating.

 

Lily reached out a hand to touch his arm and he flinched away. “Remus, it’s okay!”

 

“NO IT’S NOT!” he screamed. There were tears pouring down his face now and he had started shaking.

 

“Remus,” she whispered as she stepped closer. “Remus, you’re one of my best friends and I love you no matter what, you know?”

 

She rested a hand on his shoulder and he didn’t fight it off this time. He just started crying harder as she wrapped her arms around him.

 

“I don’t care what you are once a month,” she spoke in barely a whisper and they sank to the floor as she held him and he cried softly.

 

*******

When Remus had finally stopped panicking, they'd talked and talked and Lily had seemed completely okay with _what_ he was. 

 

The rest of term went fairly smoothly. Remus had informed Dumbledore that Lily knew and the Headmaster had thought it was good that Remus had someone to confide in. He’d had a short talk with Lily making sure she knew just how important this secret was and Lily had told the Headmaster she would never tell a soul.

 

Remus and Lily were nearly inseparable from that moment on. He had never even dreamed of having someone find out his secret and still want to be around him, let alone be his friend.

 

Remus knew Leo thought it odd just how close the two had grown but he never brought it up, he just joined whenever they invited him too, which was quite often. They were a strange little group of friends.

 

Currently Leo was sitting in with Remus as he finished up a tutoring session with Peter. There was to be a transfiguration exam the next morning and Peter was feeling very stressed.

 

By the end of the hour Peter was feeling a lot better and the three of them were just chatting away.

 

“Any plans for the holiday?” Peter asked Remus.

 

“None really, just visiting my mum and dad, I suppose,” he replied with a shrug.

 

“How is your mom?” Leo asked, concerned.

 

Remus couldn’t help the blush that spread across his cheeks at the lie when he mumbled that she was doing better.

 

“You’re mum is sick?” Peter’s voice also slick with concern.

 

“Uh– yea. Sometimes. It’s a muggle sickness. So, it gets bad sometimes but she is okay right now,” he looked over Peter’s shoulder, not able to meet his eyes.

 

Leo and Peter just nodded in response. James and Sirius then came crashing through the door whirling in hysteria. The three boys looked up at them in confusion.

 

“I-it’s snowing,” James said through a burst of laughter. Sirius barked out a laugh of his own as he nodded.

 

“And…?” Leo prompted.

 

“In the Great Hall!” Sirius squeaked through his giggling.

 

Leo and Remus just shared a look of confusion and Peter sighed.

 

“You worked out the spell?” Peter asked his two friends as he made to stand up.

 

This only renewed their laughter and James stuck out a hand to Peter’s shoulder to brace himself as he clutched his stomach.

 

“Care to elaborate?” Remus asked, annoyed as he and Leo stood as well.

 

“They jinxed the ceiling so that next time it snowed it would actually snow over the Slytherin table and the snow would stick,” Peter answered as he shoved James off.

 

“Why?” Leo gasped at the same time Remus whispered, “Bloody brilliant!”

 

Sirius just winked at them and the boys all strolled out of the classroom.

 

As they walked into the Great Hall they took in the scowls littered across the Slytherin table as the entire house continued sweeping off the snow from their heads and the table. Some of the upper years had invisible umbrellas protecting them.

 

The only problem was that the snow wasn’t _really_ sticking because the Slytherins would swipe it away too fast and it would melt.

 

Remus hummed as he thought and Sirius, who apparently was the only one that heard the sound, gave him a curious look.

 

Remus muttered a spell under his breath and the snow fell a little bit faster and clumped together more. It made it near impossible to wipe away and within seconds was pilling up all over the table and on the Syltherins themselves. Sirius beamed.

 

Remus smirked as he waved goodbye to the other three and he and Leo walked over to Ravenclaw table.

 

Leo laughed softly, “You just had to one-up them, didn’t you?”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Remus replied as he poured himself a cup of tea with a small smile.


	18. Eighteen

Christmas break had been truly awful, like usual, but Sirius was happy to see his brother again. It was their last Christmas before Regulus would be at Hogwarts too and Sirius really treasured the time spent with his brother. He was scared going to Hogwarts would somehow change Reg.

 

Sirius had spent nearly the entire break locked up in his room, which he was grateful for. He wanted to spend as little time as possible with his parents. Regulus tried to sneak real meals into Sirius’ room as often as he could as Kreacher tended to only bring him lukewarm soup.

 

His mother had gone after him a few times when Sirius just couldn’t help but to talk back. He was sure there were scars crisscrossing his back so he took extra care when changing in the dormitory when term started again.

 

Term had started off really great for once. The welcome back feast was turned into a food fight when Sirius had been annoyed with James and tried to fling his mashed potatoes at his head. James, of course, had seen what Sirius was doing and ducked. The potatoes had hit none other than Leo Morgan at the Ravenclaw table. His black hair was dripping with mash as Remus, sitting across from his friend laughed and then threw his own potatoes back towards Sirius, which had hit Marlene McKinnon instead and that was _it._

 

Soon the entire hall was flinging food of all sorts and Sirius was having the time of his life teaming up with Peter to attack James. The teachers had been absolutely besides themselves as the war raged on. But Sirius knew he had caught a glint in Dumbledore’s eye as he dodged a bread roll with ease.

 

Sirius, James, and Peter had ended up with a week’s worth of detention that was to start the next morning, helping to clean up the hall the muggle way. Sirius thought it was kind of worth it. No points were taken off as all the houses had participated.

 

Sirius swore he saw Remus give a small smirk their way when McGonagall was dueling out the detentions. Remus was _really_ the one that started the war after all.

 

Sirius and James had oddly grown to like Remus and Leo. They were fun to talk to, not that they talked all that often outside of lessons. It was usually just a few minutes here and there when they went to go find Peter after his tutoring lessons.

 

They were both fairly easy to talk to, though they never really said much as James always tended to talk enough for an entire group of people all on his own. He knew Remus was incredibly smart, even by Ravenclaw standards. Remus had figured out all those pranks during first year and improving everything that they tried to pull off this year as well.

 

*******

“We should do a Valentine’s Day prank,” James said with an air of nonchalance while he laid on the floor with his head resting on his hands.

 

“Valentine’s Day?” Sirius asked at the same time Remus asked, “Why?”

 

James rolled his eyes and then turned to Sirius with an annoyed look on his face. “It would be funny?”

 

Leo huffed out a small laugh and Peter nodded in fast agreement, like he always did whenever James suggested mayhem.

 

They were hanging out in the abandoned transfiguration classroom, having ended Peter’s lesson early.

 

Remus sighed. “And what would you like to do for this… prank?”

 

James jumped into a sitting position, suddenly animated now that he could share his ideas. “Maybe a truth serium, everyone has to tell the person they fancy that they fancy them? Or sip a few love potions into the Slytherins’ morning pumpkin juice so they all profess their love for Hagrid?”

 

Sirius barked out a laugh, Peter continued his nodding, Leo looks confused, and Remus looked unimpressed.

 

“I happen to like Hagrid, let’s not ruin his day,” Remus replied sounding uninterested.

 

James looked at him eyes wide. “’let’s?’ You’ll join us, then?” He asked eagerly.

 

Remus shrugged in response.

 

“I for one don’t fancy a detention, so I think I’m out,” Leo said quietly, staring at his shoes.

 

“We won’t get detention,” Remus replied looking to his friend. Leo gave him a confused look so he continued. “Well, if we’re smart about it and don’t let these idiots,” he pointed a thumb at Sirius and James who both looked affronted, “screw it all up, we’ll be fine.”

 

“Alright then, what do you propose since you’re so cleaver?” Sirius responded, annoyed.

 

Remus only smirked in response and Sirius felt like he had no choice but to trust the young blonde as he told the group to meet back the next day and he’d share his fully formed idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is really short, but the next one will be up later today. :) I mean it's the middle of the night right now so... Sunday afternoon will be the next (and longer) one! :) Thanks!


	19. Nineteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's been two updates in the last few hours, make sure to read them both :)

Remus had never really thought much about Valentine’s Day before. He was only 12 after all, not too big on the whole _romance thing_. When he was younger his mother would give him chocolate love hearts and he enjoyed those.

 

He didn’t really see the point in Valentine’s Day. Shouldn’t you treat your significant other special every day? He thought of his own parents and how they hadn’t acted _special_ in many years. He knew they still loved each other and Remus a whole lot but his dad always had trouble connecting with him, which in turn made it hard to connect with his mother as she was almost always with Remus when he was home.

 

Remus sighed as he dressed thinking that maybe his parents would be doing something nice together tonight since he wasn’t there to burden him. He frowned as he thought about everything his parents had had to go through because of him.

 

He shook himself out of his thoughts as he heard Ludo and Leo call out through the bathroom door that they were ready to head down to breakfast.

 

Breakfast was the one thing he was looking forward to today. The prank he had managed to hopefully pull off with the others’ help was going to be so cool.

 

He and Leo whispered excitedly all the way down to the Great Hall. He waved at Lily as he sat down and saw her walking back. She gave him a hesitant smile and wave back. He hadn’t seen her that often since they’d gotten back from break. She had said Severus was going through some issues at home and she wanted to be there for him, which Remus understood but it still made him a little sad.

 

Lily was Remus’ best friend, even more than Leo as she knew his deep and darkest secret. Lily had spent the entire day after the January full moon with him in the library reading muggle fairy tales with him and Remus had had one of the best post-moon days in his life. They had eaten far too much chocolate and Madam Pomfrey had told Lily that she wasn’t to do that after the next moon, then Lily had leaned in to whisper in Remus’ ear that she still would when the healer turned her back.

 

Other than that day he only really had seen her in classes and occationally in the library when they studied together but either Severus or Leo would be there as well.

 

Remus pouted at his food as he thought about Lily. He knew it wasn’t because of something that he had done but at the same time that feeling kept creeping up that it _was_ his fault.

 

Suddenly these thoughts were wiped from his brain as the telltale signs of the morning post began to arrive.

 

Remus beamed up at the owls as his prank began to take place. Each of the birds had been colored pink and were trailing a steady stream of red and pink glitter as they flew over the students’ heads.

 

It was a small harmless prank that he knew would be fun and get no one in trouble. Sirius and James weren’t very into the idea but as Peter reminded them they really couldn’t afford any more detentions, they finally went along with it with James promising that next year would be bigger and better.

 

James and Sirius had also perked up when Remus mentioned that the glitter would be near impossible to remove and everyone would be a shimmery pink for several days. This had made them both eagerly agree to help.

 

Remus cast a shaky impervious charm over his food so he wouldn’t have to eat the glitter falling over the table, although he had made sure it was okay to ingest just incase.

 

He ate with a small smile on his face as he watched the numerous reactions of his fellow students. A lot of people were watching in awe, some were rolling their eyes as they tried to knock the glitter off of their heads or away from their food. Some were just ignoring the mess and reaching for their letters, probably hoping for something from a secret admirer. Remus chuckled at the thought.

 

And then a card landed on his plate. Remus looked up but didn’t see anyone looking at him and there were no owls nearby. _Odd_ , he thought as he reached to open it.

 

It was a normal-looking letter. Plain white envelope with a loopy and cursive “ _Remus”_ on the front in a light pink ink. He cocked his head to the side and turned it over. There was no name saying who it was from.

 

Leo was talking about the Herbology essay and if Remus could read through it after class for him but Remus was too busy studding the letter in his hands to respond. _Did someone write him a Valentine?_

 

That was very unlikely. It was probably some horrible joke. What if when he opened it, it exploded in his face? Or what if it started singing or shouting at him? Maybe it was a false love letter meant to get his hope up?

 

It wasn’t like someone would actually write him a letter. The only girl he ever really spoke with was Lily.

 

Lily wouldn’t have written him a Valentine.

 

He began to feel a flush creep up his neck so he quickly stuck the note back in his bag and turned to Leo to join the conversation.

 

*******

By the end of the day Remus was exhausted. The full was only 3 days away and he had started feeling achy all over. It hadn’t been too bad of a day. The prank had been fun. Everyone was still covered in glitter by dinner time and no one had gotten in trouble for it.

 

James had given him a pat on the back when he saw him in transfiguration and Remus guessed that was as close to praise as the Gryffindors were capable of giving. Remus didn’t mind he was just happy they were no longer pranking one another.

 

He was currently debating whether or not to read a little before bed but he had a pounding headache and thought it best to not do so.

 

He reached to put his book back in his bag to read during break the next day when he remembered the Valentine’s cad he had hastily tucked in there at breakfast. He was alone now so he wouldn’t be embarrassed if it did turn out to be some awful prank.

 

He sighed as he broke the seal on the back. Nothing exploded, so that was good.

 

There was only a single piece of parchment in the envelope. He took it out and saw the same loopy penmanship that was written on the front.

 

_Dear Remus,_

_Hi. I wanted to let you know that I see you. I know you think you’re invisible to the world, but I think you’re pretty great and should stop hiding. I fancy you a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Someone needed to tell you you’re great._

_Happy Valentine’s._

_Love,_

_Your Secret Admirer._

What.

 

Remus read the letter again. He was confused. Was this a joke? Was someone being serious? What was happening?

 

He didn’t know very many girls. He knew Lily but Lily wouldn’t have written something like this to him. There were a few girls in his year that he spoke to about studding sometimes but that was really it. There was the Hufflepuff girl, Annabelle Jennings, that he tutored in charms occasionally, but he had seen her today and she acted normal.

 

He was beyond confused at this point. What did that mean, “ _I see you_ ”? That sounded creepy to Remus. He didn’t really want anyone playing close attention to him.

 

His headache seemed to double and he decided just to ignore it and go to bed. He’d continue acting like he had never received the letter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm not sure when I'll get to the next chapter but I'm aiming for Tuesday! :) Remus' birthday is also coming up so I think I may write a lil AU one shot for him, we shall see. 
> 
> Let me know what ya think!


	20. Twenty

Sirius was busy watching Lily Evans sitting at the Ravenclaw tower talking to Leo with a worried face that he didn’t see the letter drop on his breakfast.

 

“Sirius? Mate?” James asked and shook his shoulders lightly. Sirius spun around to face him.

 

“Huh?”

 

“You’ve got a letter!” James picked up the letter in question and waved it in his face.

 

“Who would send _me_ a letter?” He asked as he took it from James, who only shrugged in response and turned back to the conversation he was having with Peter and Mary.

 

Sirius looked at the envelope with the Black family seal on the back and felt his stomach drop.

 

When Sirius took in the slanted writing however he began to beam. Regulus had actually written him a letter!

 

_Sirius,_

_Narcissa has been writing to mother all year about everything you’ve done. That’s how she always knows and why she’s punished you. Sirius, you have got to behave. I don’t know what’s happening but I’ve heard both our parents talking about you and not in a good way. I’m worried something is going on. They keep having secret meetings with people behind closed doors and I’ve been locked in my bedroom so often since you’ve gone back to school. Something’s happening. Giving Narcissa boils last week may have thrown mother overboard. She’s been in a right state since she received Cissy’s letter._

_Be careful, please._

_Love,_

_Regulus A. Black_

Sirius frowned down at the parchment.

 

Of course his mother was keeping tabs on him. He had assumed Bella was sending her letters last year but then she had graduated and apparently Narcissa had taken over. _Great_.

 

Sirius groaned at the thought of his mother knowing his every move. James shot him a confused look but Sirius didn’t even look back at him, he was lost in thought.

 

Strange people were meeting with his parents. That wasn’t exactly new information but having them lock Reg up? That was different.

 

He didn’t get much time to think it over as James was soon pulling him up to get to potions class.

 

*******

“What happened to Lupin?” James whispered halfway through potions class as he stared at Lily and the empty seat beside her.

 

“What do you mean?” Sirius asked as he added a few sprigs of lavender to their sleeping draught.

 

“He’s been missing for a week, Si. Don’t you ever pay attention?” James sighed.

 

James picked up an extra flubberworm and threw it at the back of Bagman’s head to get his attention. Bagman spun around and glared at James.

 

“Where’s Lupin?” James hissed.

 

“He’s been sick in the hospital wing. He nearly passed out last Saturday, Leo and Lily brought him to Madam Pomfrey and he hasn’t come out since.” He shrugged and turned back to his table.

 

James turned back to Sirius. “Do you think he’s alright?”

 

Sirius only frowned in response. How had they not noticed something was up? It had been over a week now and Remus had been gone this whole time.

 

After class Sirius ran up to Evans’ desk as she was packing up. “Is Lupin alright?”

 

She jumped and turned to look up at him. “W-what? Remus?”

 

Sirius nodded. James and Peter came up to stand behind him and Evans bit her bottom lip, worried. This only increased Sirius’ worry and he glanced at James beside him quickly.

 

“He… he’s really not feeling well. Madam Pomfrey said he wasn’t to have visitors,” she rushed out in a single breath and then practically ran away.

 

“What was _that_ about?” James asked exasperated.

 

“Do you think he caught something from his mum?” Peter asked with a shaky voice as they left the dungeons.

 

James and Sirius both stopped in their tracks and turned back to look at Peter. Then they shared a worried glance.

 

“Does anyone actually know what his mother has?” James asked. Sirius and Peter both shook their heads.

 

“It’s something muggle I think,” Pete said with a shrug and they continued on to Herbology.

 

*******

The next morning Sirius spent his entire breakfast staring at the Ravenclaw table waiting to see if Remus would arrive. He could sense how tense his friends were too. They didn’t even know him that well but it felt so odd to not see him there.

 

He watched as Leo and one of the Ravenclaw girls in their year talked animatedly and frowned. They looked even more worried than Evans had been yesterday. Maybe something had gone wrong. They would probably tell his house mates first, right?

 

James must have been watching as well because he stood abruptly from his seat and marched over towards Leo. Sirius hurried to follow him nearly tripping over the bench.

 

“Is he okay?” James asked.

 

Leo jerked his head to look up at him and nodded. “He came back from the hospital wing last night and slept in his own bed. All Flitwick said was that he needed rest and we weren’t to bother him.”

 

“But he’s okay?” Sirius asked again.

 

“I think so. I spoke to him this morning. He said he’d be going back to classes today. He has a nasty scar right by his eye. Looks like he picked a fight with a hippogriff,” Leo replied and then turned back to the girl. “McKenzie, you said you’d go with me to meet him before charms?”

 

The girl nodded and they both stood up and left.

 

“That was odd,” Sirius commented as they headed back to the Gryffindor table.

 

“Glad he’s alright though,” James replied.

 

“Where’s Evans?” Sirius realized he hadn’t seen her eating breakfast or at all that morning.

 

“Maybe she’s gone to check on Lupin?” James shrugged and then turned and filled Peter in on what they’d learned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I procrastinated and wrote this instead of my homework assignment. So... here you are. I'm going to try to write a lot this week because the week after I'll be in London and probably won't update as that's my spring break. Then again, I do have a 5 hour flight in my future so... haha anyway, hope you enjoyed a lil bit of mystery in the last few chapters haha


	21. Twenty-One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya girl is on a role! Thank you, enjoy.

“Does it hurt?” Lily whispered as she ran a finger lightly over Remus’ newest scar by his left eye.

 

“Not anymore,” Remus shrugged.

 

“But your head is doing better?” she asked as she turned back to her Transfiguration notes. Remus nodded and also turned back to his own notes.

 

“Thanks for spending time with me this week. I’ve been awfully bored sitting around the hospital wing,” Remus said a few minutes later.

 

“Of course! I’ll be there whenever I can. It sucks you were out so long,” she sighed.

 

“It happens sometimes. Madam Pomfrey says I must have ran into one of the walls and somehow given myself a concussion. She didn’t want to treat it like a normal concussion just incase it was something… I don’t know… wolfy,” he laughed.

 

“At least you got all your work done, nothing to make up!” She said cheerily.

 

Remus smiled at her, “Yea, I guess so. Thanks again for collecting all my work for me. I’m so glad I’ve been doing a few days ahead of schedule this term.”

 

“You work too hard.”

 

Remus just waved her off and they got back to studding. They were sitting in the Ravenclaw common room and it was nearly a week since Remus had gone back to classes.

 

“We should have a party for your birthday this weekend!” Lily said suddenly.

 

Remus groaned and hid his face. “No thanks.”

 

“ _Remus, please!_ It’ll be fun!” She sighed.

 

“I’m not a social outing type of person. We’ll just do something with Leo?” he closed his transfiguration book, not wanting to study anymore.

 

“But you have lots of friends, Remus! We all want to do something for with you. You’re very well liked, you know?” Lily also closed her book, exasperated.

 

Those words struck a chord with Remus and he thought over the strange note he had been given on Valentine’s a few weeks ago now.

 

“You haven’t…. written any letters recently, have you?” he felt stupid for asking and could feel his face heating up.

 

Lily looked at him quizzically. “Letters? Like, letters home?”

 

Remus laughed awkwardly at his own stupidity. “Never mind.”

 

“No, what do you mean?” She cocked her head to the side.

 

Remus sighed and then reached into his bag and pulled out the letter. He looked at it and then at Lily who had her eyebrow raised and looked like she may laugh.

 

“Okay… er,” he coughed and handed it to her.

 

He watched as she read it over, nervously biting his lip and waiting for her response. She seemed to read it over a few times and then looked up and gave him a soft smile.

 

“Oh, Remus! This is adorable. Who do you think it is?” She jumped up and grabbed his hand.

 

Remus rolled his eyes. “I kind of assumed it was you, so obviously I have no idea.”

 

Lily started giggling uncontrollably and Remus glared at her.

 

“Remus,” she took a deep breath to calm her giggles. “Remus, I tell you you’re great every single day. Why would I write you a letter saying so?”

 

Remus nodded. ‘Yea, you’ve got me there.”

 

Lily laughed again.

 

“Have you told Leo about it?” She asked and Remus turned red as Leo himself who had been walking up to them jumped over the back of the couch and sat down next to Lily.

 

“Told Leo about what?” he laughed.

 

Remus waved a hand at Lily as if saying he didn’t care and Lily handed the letter off to Leo.

 

Leo read it over and started laughing. “Remus! Who knew you were such a catch?”

 

This started Lily off again too and Remus just huffed.

 

“I hate you both,” Remus snatched the letter back and stuffed it into his backpack again.

 

*******

Remus spent the next several days trying to convince Lily that he did not want a birthday part of any kind. When Saturday came around Lily sat with him at the Ravenclaw tower and gave him a box full of sugar quills.

 

“Thank you, Lils!” He beamed at her and picked up a green one and stuck it in his mouth.

 

Leo, Lily and a few of the Ravenclaws in their year that were sitting around them all laughed. His cheeks heated up at he realized how many people had been paying attention to him.

 

The group soon headed up to the Ravenclaw tower with Lily and her friend Mary tagging along.

 

“I swear Lily, you spend more time here than you do in Gryffindor tower!” Ludo exclaimed when he jumped on one of the sofas.

 

“Remus spends a lot of time in Gryffindor tower as well, actually,” Mary commented. “It’s quite nice in here actually. It feels a lot bigger than ours,” she continued turning to Lily.

 

“It is. Ravenclaw common room is the biggest common room,” Remus said smugly.

 

They all settled down on the various sofas and chairs surrounding one of the tables.

 

“So, Remus how does it feel to turn 13?” Leo asked.

 

Remus laughed. “Pretty much the same, you’ll find out in a few months.”

 

Everyone else laughed as Leo frowned. He was going to be the last to turn 13.

 

They spent the rest of the morning playing games an laughing. Remus was happy to be surrounded by his housemates that he knew he didn’t spend enough time with.

 

After lunch Lily insisted that Remus come back to Gryffindor tower with her and Mary.

 

James was in the common room when they got there, sitting on the sofa looking nervous. He jumped up when the others walked through the portrait hole.

 

“Happy Birthday!” he shouted as Remus, who jumped lightly at the noise.

 

“Thanks,” he smiled at him.

 

James thrust out the box to Remus, “Sirius landed himself and Pete in Saturday afternoon detention but we got together to get you a present!”

 

Remus took the present hesitantly. “Last time I received a birthday gift from you three I started breathing fire…” he looked down at the box nervously.

 

James laughed awkwardly and shuffled his feet. “Sorry about that. I promise it’s not a prank, not a prank on you anyway. I still feel bad.”

 

Remus shrugged and sat down on a chair. Everyone else sat down as well and he opened the box. He started laughing when he saw what was inside. It was a bunch of Zonko’s joke products.

 

“I don’t think I have ever seen so many dung bombs!” Remus continued laughing.

 

“You did not!” Lily yelled as she jumped up to look in the box. “Remus, you can’t actually use those!”

 

“I’m sure Remus is smart enough to set them off without getting into trouble. Sirius is an idiot and set them off in the Slytherin corridor while Sluggy was down there,” James laughed.

 

Remus laughed again as Lily sighed, “ _Idiot._ ”

 

James smirked at her and she rolled her eyes.

 

“So, Remus have you told the boys about your secret admirer?” Lily asked cheekily.

 

Remus coughed as both James and Mary hissed “ _WHAT?_ ”

 

“Someone sent Rem a letter saying that they fancy him!” Lily smiled sweetly at Remus and the other two laughed.

 

Remus awkwardly explained the letter to the other two.

 

“That’s adorable!” Mary cooed. “I wonder if it was Marlene, I think she may fancy you a bit,” she giggled.

 

Lily gasped and Remus turned bright red. He still kind of thought it was a joke and wasn’t sure he wanted to find out who it was.

 

Marlene was a very nice girl and kind of pretty, Remus supposed but wasn’t 13 a bit young? He didn’t fancy anyone himself and he didn’t really want to think about it.

 

Really, who would fancy him anyway? He’d never even had any friends until last year and this new change was a bit too weird for him.

 

Lily and Mary started gossiping about who could have written the letter and James was asking Remus who he would like it to be. James wouldn’t take ‘nobody’ as an answer.

 

After dinner Remus went straight to bed saying he had a headache and didn’t want to celebrate anymore. Everyone let him be since they all believed he had a tendency to get sick often.

 

Pretty much everyone knew about his secret admirer now. Remus was trying to keep a close eye on all the girls in his house and Marlene. James wouldn’t shut up about it in front of her but she hadn’t said anything or reacted so Remus was sure it wasn’t her.

 

James had also told just about everyone and no one seemed to react any differently. Remus decided to just ignore the letter and move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure how it happened but I've been bit by the writing bug and I've done a lot of chapters this weekend lol Let's see how long I can keep this up! Thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts!


	22. Twenty-Two

**“** I can’t _believe_ we got an entire month of detention!” Sirius yelled as he stomped through the common room and up the stairs to the dormitory with the other two boys following.

 

“You flooded the charms corridor!” James replied as he rolled his eyes.

 

“We. _We_ flooded the charms corridor.” Sirius flopped onto his bed.

 

“No, mate I blame you entirely,” James laughed.

 

“Doesn’t matter all three of us got the detention,” Peter lamented.

 

“Why did you have to drag us with you though?” James sighed and also flopped onto Sirius’ bed next to him.

 

“We’re a team and you know it!” Sirius turned and beamed at James, who rolled his eyes again.

 

“I have detention on my birthday though!” James pouted. “And it’s a miracle that McGonagall is letting me play in the match tomorrow.”

 

“There’s nothing that can stand between Minnie and her Quidditch Cup!” Sirius started laughing again.

 

“Shut up you great prat,” James sighed and proceeded to shove Sirius off the bed.

 

Chaos then ensued as the two began to wrestle on the floor and Peter laughed at their antics.

 

*******

Sirius had decided to skip the quidditch game the next day. He had detention starting at 1 and didn’t want to have to leave from the game and risk being late for Filch. He knew Filch would give him a hard time if he was late and he wasn’t going to risk it. Poor Pete on the other hand didn’t want to miss ogling James on the pitch.

 

He had decided to aimlessly walk around the corridors and take advantage of an empty school as it was the big Slytherin vs. Gryffindor match and everyone had gone to the pitch. He was walking down the transfiguration corridor when he saw Lupin sitting cross-legged on a bench with his nose in a book.

 

Sirius hadn’t spoken to Lupin in a while, which was fine as they weren’t exactly friends. Peter knew him best and Sirius and James would say hi in classes but that was really it.

 

Sirius really didn’t know anything about the bloke. He was short and blonde and apparently sick a lot, that was it. Sirius took the opportunity to study the small Ravenclaw a bit.

 

He wasn’t in his school robs and instead wearing an oversized and slightly falling apart gray jumper. The book he held in his hands also looked old and battered and covered up most of his face. Lupin’s hair was kind of crazy, the curls were going every which way and a few fell in his face and Sirius wondered if Remus could actually see anything through them.

 

Sirius watched as Lupin suddenly ran a hand through his hair and noticed the boy was biting his lip. He must have been really into the book for it to make him look so nervous.

 

“Not going to the game?” Sirius asked suddenly, making up his mind to talk to the boy.

 

He jumped a little bit and almost dropped his book, but not before he slid a finger in to save his place. Sirius smiled as he walked up to stand right in front of him, entirely too close but he didn’t really notice.

 

“I… I could ask you the-the same,” Lupin stuttered and then moved his feet so that Sirius could sit if he wanted.

 

Sirius did sit and turned to face Lupin, “Jamie doesn’t mind I’m missing the big game. I’ve got detention in a bit. It’s just the start, didn’t want to risk Filch coming after me if I missed.”

 

Lupin gave a shaky smile and Sirius noticed his slightly crooked teeth, which oddly made him want to smile as well.

 

“Well, flooding the charms corridor was kind of… stupid,” Lupin said as a slight blush crept up his cheeks. “Sorry. I mean, why the charms corridor? And right after Flitwick had taught your lesson. Obviously he knew it would be you three.”

 

Sirius just laughed, “He was furious. Wasn’t he?”

 

Lupin nodded. “You should have done the dungeons and added a time delay. No one would have figured out who did it. Honestly, they probably would have thought it was a leak or something as part of the dungeons go under the lake.”

 

Sirius just stared at him with wide eyes.

 

Lupin’s face grew redder and he ran a hand through his bouncy curls again. “What?”

 

“That’s brilliant! Need to run all my ideas through you from now on!” Sirius said excitedly and started thinking over other ideas he’d had.

 

Lupin gave an awkward laugh and began to look anywhere except at Sirius.

 

“Alright, Lupin I’ll let you get back to…” Sirius bent over into Lupin’s space in order to read the title and then raised an elegant eyebrow and asked, “To Kill A Mockingbird? You’re slaughtering animals now too?” He started laughing.

 

Lupin’s lips twitched as if he was trying not to smile. “It has nothing to do with killing any birds, I promise.”

 

Sirius laughed shaking his head as he stood up. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you, Lupin?”

 

Sirius started walking away and Lupin dragged his legs back onto the bench propping the book on his knees. Sirius turned around again when a thought struck him.

 

“Have you figured out your secret admirer yet?” He asked.

 

Lupin ran another hand through his curls nervously as he shook his head. “No, Mary reckons it’s Marlene but I’ve barely spoken to the girl.”

 

Sirius barked out a laugh. “No, I reckon it’s a Ravenclaw. I have a hunch but I mustn’t share.” He gave Lupin a cheeky grin and briskly walked away before he replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really needed a tiny bit of Sirius & Remus, okay? Sirius also def knows who sent the letter, but will never tell. 
> 
> ALSO: I just saw Love, Simon (press screening because I'm now writing a formal review for an actual publication omg) AND IT WAS SO GOOD. You'll all love it loads, so go see it when it's out (March 16th in the US & I think April 6th in the UK?)
> 
> It's given me all kinds of feels and just makes me want to write some Wolfstar, but alas I have a big old review to write up!
> 
> I have no classes tomorrow so as soon as this review is done I'm writing up the next chapter! Stay tuned!


	23. Twenty-Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry in advance for what I've put poor Rem through....

Remus was tired, honestly he was beyond tired. He’d spent so much time doing all of his school work and trying to get ahead as well as plan out his tutoring sessions, he felt like he hadn’t really had a full night’s sleep in months. The April full moon was fast approaching and the aches and pains of the last moon had only just started to fade.

 

He was worried all the stress over school would make the moon even worse. He was still a little scared over what had happened during the February moon. He couldn’t afford to miss that much school again.

 

Remus honestly just felt like a giant mess.

 

Luckily, it was currently a Sunday and he was a full week ahead of schedule with his homework just in case the moon on Tuesday was bad.

 

He had finally chosen which classes to take next year after asking Professor Flitwick for an extra week to decide.

 

Third years had the option to choose two or more electives to add to their schedule. There was Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies. There was something about every class that intrigued Remus. It had taken him a while to narrow it down to a final three classes.

 

He had dropped muggle studies from the list first as his mother was muggle and their household was far more muggle than it was magical. He knew he wanted to take ancient runes, as that sounded the most interesting to him.

 

He was hesitant on care of magical creatures though. He knew he never had much luck with non-magical creatures, cats and dogs and even owls didn’t like being around him. It was something in the animal behavior that these animals just knew he was a dangerous predator.

 

In the end he had decided to drop divination as the whole idea of predicting the future didn’t interest him. He wasn’t sure he really believed in being able to tell the future by looking in a teacup, it sounded quite daft if he was being honest.

 

So, arithmancy, care of magical creatures, and ancient runes it was.

 

*******

Remus had decided to spend his Sunday finishing up an essay on doxy eggs for potions that would be due later that week. When he was finally satisfied with it he decided to make his way down to Slughorn to turn it in early in case he was out longer than expected after the moon.

 

He had gone to Slughorn’s office only to find that he wasn’t there so he left the essay on his desk and went to see if he was in the classroom. He entered the potions room to find Slughorn bedding farewell to a group of slytherins. Not just any group of slytherins though, it was the group from Remus’ own year. Avery, Nott, and Snape.

 

Remus took a deep breath and walked up to the professor.

 

“Oh, hello Lupin, my boy!” The large professor boomed in his deep voice. “Have you sorted out the essay early for me again?”

 

Remus nodded and Slughorn beamed at him and patted him on the back. “Always a pleasure reading your essays, great insight you have, if not always used on the practical,” he laughed at himself and Remus grimaced as the boys on the other side of the room snickered.

 

“I-I’ve left it on your desk, sir,” Remus said in a small voice. Slughorn gave him another pat on the back and then swept out of the room.

 

Remus, ignoring the other boys, immediately turned to follow but the classroom door slammed shut of it’s own accord.

 

His blood ran cold as he froze in his spot. He took a quick short breath and reached out to open the door himself when he heard the unmistakable cold laugh coming from Nott behind him.

 

“Not so fast there…” he drawled and Remus turned slowly to face the three boys that were much closer than they were a second ago.

 

Remus gulped as he took in the smirk on Nott’s lips and the teasing glint to his eyes. _What had he gotten himself into?_

“So, _Loony Lupin,_ ” Avery spat. “Is your filthy mother _dying,_ again?” Avery rolled his eyes at the thought.

 

Remus’ breath hitched and he suddenly felt like he was suffocating.

 

“Waste of space, if you ask me,” Nott replied.

 

“ _Muggles_ ,” Avery sighed. “Disgusting.”

 

Remus looked at Snape, who had yet to say a word, with pleading eyes. _If Lily saw what you were doing…._

 

Nott shoved an elbow into Snape’s gut and he grunted in response. “Go on, Snape.”

 

Snape had a very brief look of pain, it only lasted a split second and Remus thought he’d most likely imagined it. Then Snape’s eyes were closed and he raised his wand at Remus, who stopped breathing entirely at the sight.

 

“Plea–“

 

“ _Petrificus Totalus_ ”

 

Remus grew stiff as a board and fell backwards, flat on the ground. He couldn’t move and he felt the panic building in his chest. Short and fast breaths were coming through his nose and he grew fastly dizzy.

 

“ _Loony._ ” Nott kicked Remus in the ribs. “ _Loopy_.” Another kick. “ _Lupin._ ” Another kick and Remus was blinded by the pain in his right side, he desperately trying to call out but he still couldn’t move.

 

“People like you,” Avery spat down at him. “You’re just a speck of dirt on wizard kind.”

 

“You’ll all be whipped out soon though, don’t worry,” Nott continued and Remus could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

 

Remus felt like he may faint. His breathing still hadn’t slowed and he felt like he was over heating. He needed to move. He needed to run away. He was going to die if he didn’t move right this second–

 

His fingers twitched.

 

Nott and Avery were still spewing on about was a disgrace it must be to have a muggle mother with Snape hurriedly nodding along.

 

Remus paused. He tried to slow his breathing again, still not successful but he wasn’t imagining his fingers being able to move. That shouldn’t be possible.

 

Soon he could feel his toes wiggling as well in the bottom of his worn out sneakers. Snape wasn’t confident when he cast the spell, and it wasn’t holding up. His racing heart sped up more as he realized he may be able to get out of this.

 

Nott was asking if they should leave him here and go grab Mulciber as he was sure to get a _kick_ out of the situation.

 

Remus realized he’d grown feeling back in his arms and legs and before the other three could even realize he was pushing up off the ground and cast a powerful tickling charm. The charm hit all three of the Slytherins and they all doubled over with laughter as Remus fled from the room.

 

He heard loud cursing from behind him as the boys tried to stop the charm on each other. Remus didn’t stop, he ran as fast as he could down the corridor and as he got to the next corridor he heard the racing footsteps that followed.

 

Remus looked around himself unsure of what to do. He wouldn’t be able to make it out of the dungeons before they caught up to him. His side was still in immense pain and his legs still felt slightly stiff from the body-bind curse.

 

He swore under his breath as he tried to speed up but failed. The running footsteps behind him were catching up. Then he saw it.

 

It was a paining frame that was jutting out from the wall. Remus knew there must be hundreds of secret passageways in the castle and this was bound to be one of them that someone hadn’t shut properly behind them.

 

He didn’t have time to second guess his decision and slipped behind the painting of a bowl of colorful fruit, slamming the frame shut behind him. He turned around leaning on the now tightly sealed passageway. He closed his eyes and heaved a deep sigh as he faintly heard the footsteps continue running past the painting.

 

He took another deep breath and suddenly heard what sounded like a metal platter falling to the ground. He quickly opened his eyes again to take in his surroundings. He immediately saw what seamed to be the Great Hall, but different. He gasped as he suddenly saw what looked like hundreds of house elves all stairing at him with giant, glossy eyes.

 

“Hello young master, is you be needing somefink?” a small elf with what looked like a smear of flour across his face asked. The elf was now standing directly in front of Remus and staring up at him with a lopsided grin that took up most of his face.

 

“W-what?” Remus stammered. His heartbeat was finally returning to normal after all the running and as the adrenalin left him he started to feel the ache from the growing bruise in his side.

 

“Would young master be liking some snacks?” The elf asked.

 

“Or an early supper? Young master is not looking very well,” another elf commented.

 

Remus realized he was probably in the kitchens. The four long tables he had mistaken for the ones in the hall were probably used to transfer the food up into the real hall. He almost smiled as his discovery but only grimaced as the pain in his side grew.

 

“Er– tea? Do you have some tea? And maybe somewhere I could sit, maybe?” he asked and the elves hurried to show him to a smaller table by the fire as a third elf prepared him a cup of tea.

 

“Some biscuits? Or a pie? We is making pies for supper,” the third elf asked as Remus took a sip from his perfectly made tea. He nodded to her and she smiled and set off to the other side of the kitchen.

 

_What just happened?_

 

*******

Remus stayed in the kitchen for the rest of the afternoon chatting to various elves. It was hard to keep track of them all, to be honest. They were all very kind and were tripping over their feet to help him. After about an hour of his wincing when he moved, one of the elves found out he was injured and quickly whipped up a potion for him without asking any questions.

 

She had told him that the bruise would stay but the pain would subside and that was as best as she could do without making him go to the hospital wing.

 

They had given him his supper instead of making him leave to go eat upstairs with everyone else and when it got late and nearly time for curfew they filled his pockets with sweets and sent him on his way, telling him the secret to open the passageway again incase he ever wanted to visit.

 

He didn’t even bother thinking about the horrible events that had transpired just hours earlier and made his way back to Ravenclaw tower with a smile on his face.

 

Leo was full of questions when he got back to the dorm room but Remus couldn’t be bothered to talk about it and waved him off saying he’d explain everything later, though he knew he would never tell anyone about what the Slytherins had done and he wasn’t sure he wanted anyone else to know about the kind elves in the kitchens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy almost birthday, Remus. Sorry for.... that. Had to be done though. I'll have a much lighter and nice chapter tomorrow, promise! :)


	24. Twenty-Four

“I’m sorry, you what?” James whipped his head around to look as Sirius who looked far too smug for what he’d just said.

 

“I said,” he gave a great huff and an almost roll of his eyes. “That I broke the git’s nose.”

 

Sirius flopped down on his bed and opened up the quidditch magazine that he’d hastily thrown to the side an hour ago when Peter had first come running into the dorm room.

 

Peter had been down to see if Slughorn would give him an extention on his essay as Peter had misplaced the essay he had half written already and Sirius and James were refusing to help. Peter had been right by the potions room door when it slammed shut on it’s own and he overheard the conversation inside. He heard Nott attack Remus and Peter had frozen. He was too scared to go in and felt like he couldn’t do anything so he had run back up into the castle to find a teacher, only finding Filch instead.

 

By the time Peter had dragged Filch back down into the dungeon, the potions room was empty and Peter was given a detention for bothering Filch. He’d then come running back up to the dorm and shared what happened to the other boys and Sisius had stormed out in a rage.

 

James jumped up from where he was sitting. “ _Sirius._ You can’t just go around punching people!”

 

Sirius didn’t look up from the magazine. “Who knows what he did to poor Lupin. Kid isn’t made for rough housing. Have you ever  _seen_ him?”

 

James sighed and flopped down next to Sirius. “Well, Pete went to find McGonagall. So, if Nott goes and tells Slughorn, you’ll really be in for it. We still have three detentions left from flooding the corridor last month.”

 

“Maybe I’m trying to break a record?” Sirius turned and winked at James, who rolled his eyes.

 

“You’re an idiot,” James sighed then took the magazine from Sirius’ hands. “This is mine, by the way.” James jumped up off the bed and walked back to his own, ignoring a pouting Sirius.

 

*******

McGonagall never did come after Sirius and Sirius took this to mean that Nott never said anything about Sirius punching him in the face and probably just got one of the older students to fix it for him.

 

At dinner Sirius and James were both keeping an eye at the Ravenclaw table through the whole meal but Remus never showed. Sirius saw Leo glance at the entrance hall periodically through the meal. He was worried too. He watched as Leo and one of the girls, Mckenna or something, talked frowning and waving their hands about.

 

Sirius tried to catch up with Lily after the meal but she blew him off. Sirius didn’t like her too much if he was being honest.

 

James bumped shoulders with him as they walked back to Gryffindor tower with a whispered, “He wasn’t at dinner. Do you think he’s okay?”

 

Sirius just shot him a worried look. This was different then the poor bloke being sick all the time. He could be seriously hurt somewhere and needing help.

 

“Come on, let’s go see Pomfrey,” James suggested and pulled him out of the crowd of students walking back to the common room. Peter followed when James tapped his shoulder.

 

When they got to the hospital wing they saw both McGonagall and Flitwick hurry out looking worried. The three boys shared a look and Sirius pushed James ahead of him to go inside.

 

There was no one in the room. Madam Pomfrey’s office door was closed and a light was on but that was it. Every single bed was empty.

 

“Pete, what’d Minnie say when you told her what you heard?” Sirius asked as they turned and walked back to Gryffindor tower.

 

“She just thanked me for telling her and asked me to go back to the tower,” Peter replied, tripping slightly on the stairs.

 

“Well,” James fixed his glasses on his nose properly and then cleared his throat. “We’ll have to see if he’s okay tomorrow. There’s nothing we can do now.”

 

“We should look for him!” Sirius whisper-yelled.

 

“Si, we can’t. It’ll be curfew soon and he have no idea where to even start looking,” James made to walk faster toward the way to Gryffindor tower and Sirius sighed but followed with a last small glance over his shoulder.

 

*******

The next day Sirius went down the breakfast only to see a laughing Remus Lupin helping the girl sitting next to him who seamed to have spilled tea all over the two of them.

 

Sirius shot James, sitting across from him, a puzzled look and James just rolled his eyes and shrugged.

 

Sirius watched with narrowed eyes as Lupin acted as if all was normal and he hadn’t been cornered and attacked by Slytherins just the day before. Sirius had never really paid so much attention to the Ravenclaw before.

 

Lupin was the quiet sort who listened and nodded along as everyone around him spoke.

 

He never really spoke himself but he smiled and laughed when everyone else did. He was a really odd bloke.

 

About halfway through breakfast Sirius watched and Lupin and the girl who had spilled the tea both stood to leave. Leo stood up a second later and they all left the Great Hall.

 

Sirius shook his head and turned back the conversation James, Peter, and a few of the third years next to them were having about the new docs they were putting in near the lake next weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's short and low-key nothing really happened, but next chapter is the last of second year! & Some good is coming Remus' way. I'll see if I can't write it up and post it later tonight. After all, it is our favorite werewolf's birthday so it seems odd posting a chapter that he was pretty much missing from the whole time...
> 
> Happy Birthday Moony. :)


	25. Twenty-Five

Remus had decided not to tell anyone what had happened. Professor Flitwick had come to the dormitory later that night to ask if he was alright. Remus had said he wasn’t feeling well and decided to skip dinner and that he was sure students did that all the time and he thought he didn’t have to tell someone why he missed a meal. The tiny professor had waved him off saying that a fellow student had claimed that Remus had been attacked.

 

Remus had been very confused, would one of the Slytherins actually tell on the others? Maybe Snape had felt bad for hurting one of Lily’s friends?

 

Remus had told his head of house that he was fine and it was only a few students trying to tease him for turning assignments in early. Flitwick looked uncertain but moved on.

 

And so had Remus. He wasn’t going to bother thinking about the Slytherins again. He wasn’t even going to mention it to Lily. If Snape did feel bad and tell a professor than Remus wasn’t going to ruin his friendship with Lily over it.

 

By Wednesday, Madam Pomfrey would just believe the bruise on his ribs was from the full moon anyway and clear it straight up. There was nothing to worry over.

 

It was Monday morning and Remus was running a little late to history of magic as he had managed to spill tea all over himself and McKenzie. So, the both of them had gone back to the tower to change with Leo accompanying them and asking where on earth Remus had been the night before.

 

Remus wasn’t planning on answering though, he wanted to keep the kitchens a secret for now.

 

McKenzie had been really nice about the whole spilling tea thing and kept apologizing even though it was completely Remus’ fault.

 

Leo ran up ahead of them claiming to want to find a good seat so he wouldn’t be forced to sit in the front during Professor Binns’ lecture. Remus rolled his eyes and walked at a normal pace with McKenzie instead, he doubted Binns would even notice their tardiness.

 

“Have you finished that essay Slughorn assigned? It’s fascinating how many potions doxy eggs are used for,” she said and smiled at him.

 

Remus nodded. “I know. I finished my essay yesterday actually. Doxies are odd little creatures. Are you taking care of magical creatures next term? Maybe we’ll learn more about them,” he returned the smile and saw a slight blush creep up her exposed neck.

 

“Er– no. I decided on ancient runes, divination, and muggle studies. My mum’s sister married a muggle. He’s the only muggle I’ve ever met so I thought I’d take the class to learn some, you know?” She said nervously twirling a lock of blonde hair around her finger.

 

“That makes sense,” Remus nodded. “Ancient runes will be fun. I’ve signed up for that as well. Sounded the most interesting to me.”

 

“Yea, me as well,” she beamed up at him as the two walked into the classroom and right to the front of the room where the only empty desk was.

 

After history of magic the Ravenclaws made their way across the castle to the defense against the dark arts with Ludo trying to make bets on who would win the quidditch cup at the end of the month. It was going to be Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw since Gryffindor had beat Slytherin out last month.

 

Ludo was on the team as a one of the beaters after a 7th year dropped out halfway through the term to focus on his N.E.W.T.s.

 

Remus honestly couldn’t care less about the match and tried to hang back and avoid the conversation.

 

“Hey Remus, I know you’re not a big fan of quidditch and I’m really not either. Blair is always dragging me down to the pitch to watch,” McKenzie started as she matched Remus’ pace. “The match is the week before exams, you would think our friends would have more important things to worry about,” she said with a small laugh and a roll of her eyes.

 

Remus turned to smile and agree with her. It was nice talking to someone who wasn’t Leo for once. He loved Leo, he was his best friend but they really didn’t have a lot in common. And Lily was fantastic, his other best friend that he loved way too much but she’d recently been bringing Snape around too much and Remus still couldn’t stand the guy.

 

“Anyway…” McKenzie continued and Remus watched as a light pink started to take over the girl’s pale features. “Would you like to study during the match? If we could cover charms and transfiguration that’s be brilliant. I mean, I know you tutor other students in those classes so you must be really great and I could help you out with potions too… I mean– well, if you wanted anyway,” she said all in a rush as the blush on her face got deeper.

 

Remus felt his own flush creeping up his neck. She wanted to hang out with him. _Alone_. She was making up an excuse to study. She’d gone out of her way to talk to him without the other second years listening in.

 

She probably wrote the letter.

 

Remus smiled at her. “Yea, of course.”

 

She ducked her head a little and a blonde sheet of hair fell over her face but not before Remus saw the beaming smile.

 

Remus smiled to himself as well. _A girl liked him._ Like, actually liked him.

 

*******

The April full moon had oddly gone really well. He’d only gotten one new scar, the only problem being that it looked like two claw marks going across the back of his left hand. Madam Pomfrey didn’t know what to say when Remus asked how he’d explain it.

 

In the end she wrapped it up in a bandage and had Professor Flitwick put a disillusionment charm on it so it would look normal at least until the scars faded a little bit in a week or so.

 

Other than that he was feeling fine enough to head back to classes Wednesday after lunch. He had told his friends he had had a bad headache the night before and had asked to spend the night in the infirmary as an excuse.

 

No one really questioned his disappearances anymore. Everyone just thought he was a little sickly, which technically was true.

 

Lily came with him to the library after class and the two of them sat in their hidden section again. Lily filled him in on things he probably missed in his first 3 classes that morning, even though she wasn’t actually in them herself.

 

“Actually,” Remus swallowed. “Er– McKenzie gave me her notes.”

 

Lily raised a thin eyebrow at him.

 

He covered his mouth as he let out a small cough. “I also think she’s asked me on a date… well, a study date that is.”

 

“ _REMUS!_ ” She exclaimed and then batted his hand away as he went to cover her mouth. “Oh that’s so sweet! She must have written the letter. Oh she’s cute. You’re cute. You’ll be so cute together!”

 

Lily started squealing as Remus turned bright red and tried to duck his head.

 

“I’m so happy for you, Remus,” she smiled at him and Remus smiled back.

 

“It’s not weird, right? I mean we’ve second years!”

 

Lily rolled her eyes. “You’re both 13 now. And we have Hogsmeade next year! You’ll be able to go on real dates and such.”

 

Remus gave her a wobbly smile and they soon went back to talking about how they couldn’t wait for third year.

 

*******

Soon it was the first weekend of May and the entire castle was out on the pitch to watch the quidditch match that would determine the winner of the cup. Remus was sitting in a back corner of the library with McKenzie. The pile of textbooks forgotten as Remus told her muggle fairytales and she laughed as he waved his arms around imitating the strange evil witches that muggles believed in.

 

He’d had a really fun day and McKenzie was very cool. She loved his muggle fairytales and in return told him about all the stuffy pureblood parties she’d been forced to attend, always making fun of them.

 

They ended up having a lot in common as well. They realized they had a similar taste in music when they talked about artists they liked to listen to and although she didn’t know very many muggle bands she had the same favorite wizarding band as Remus, The Wandering Wraiths.

 

Soon they got hungry and headed down to the hall for dinner with the rest of the school. Everyone at Ravenclaw was cheering and dancing and Remus took this to mean they won the cup. He happily sat at the table while Leo and Ludo took turns talking excitedly about the game and how it all went down.

 

They’d apparently only just barely won as Gryffindor had scored a lot of goals but Ravenclaw had gotten the snitch. Remus didn’t exactly care but he was glad everyone seamed so excited.

 

*******

Soon the end of the year was drawing to a close. Remus received a box of peppermint toads from Peter as a thanks to helping him pass his transfiguration exam and later that night Remus laughed along with the rest of the school as James and Sirius let loose what looked like hundreds of chocolate frogs at the end of the farewell feast. The chocolate frogs jumped all over the Great Hall as students chased after them.

 

It turned out to only be a spell, and they weren’t real chocolate frogs but it was still funny watching the frogs all turn into small lumps of chocolate after a few minutes and everyone jumped to get a sweet.

 

Before he knew it, Remus was sitting in a compartment with his friends on the way back to muggle London. He had McKenzie on one side and Leo on the other as he and Leo wrote out a list of muggle bands she just _had_ to listen to.

 

Ludo, Lily, and Mary sat on the other side talking about their summer plans and Remus felt like he’d never been so content in his entire life. He had really great friends, who promised to send letters and maybe even try to visit if they could. And of course he was going to see his mother soon who he missed beyond belief.

 

James, Sirius, and Peter came by the compartment to wish them all a happy summer and James teased Ludo, saying he’d better enjoy the cup while he had it because Gryffindor would be taking it the next year. Everyone in the compartment rolled their eyes at this and Sirius dragged the boy back to their own compartment.

 

When they arrived back in London Lily and Remus were hugging goodbye when Remus heard the annoyed cough of Snape behind him.

 

“Hi Sev! Ready to go?” Lily beamed at him and reached out a hand for him to take. He just grimaced at her with a quick glance at Remus.

 

“Bye Rem! I’ll write you soon!” She called over her shoulder as the two of them left the train. Remus picked up his trunk and went off to find his mum and dad on the platform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And goodbye second year! Happy Remus is all I want in life to be honest. I know all our little wolfstar hearts are very much not here for McKenzie, sorry about that. You'll see, I have things up my sleeve.
> 
> Anyway, a very happy birthday to one Remus Lupin & I hope you all enjoyed the double chapters today. Don't expect it again soon lol
> 
> I'm aiming for another update on Monday, because I'll be off to London Tuesday-next Monday so no writing. See ya soon! Leave a comment, thanks for reading!


	26. Twenty-Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: There's a little bit of harsh language and abuse in this chapter but it's not too detailed so it should be okay!

Sirius had really done it this time. To be fair it wasn’t exactly his fault. He had _told_ James not to send him any letters. He had told both his friends at the end of first year that sending him letters wouldn’t be a good idea and that he probably wouldn’t even get them anyway.

 

James and Peter knew the Blacks were crazy and secretive and strict, but no, of course James just had to talk to Sirius and couldn’t wait the two weeks left of summer holidays. He just _had_ to send that letter and now Sirius was in deep water.

 

Sirius never even got to read the letter to know _what_ was so important. The Potter’s owl had arrived during the morning post along with a ministry owl that had something for his father.

 

Sirius hadn’t even registered that the owl belonged to the Potter’s at first, as we never actually expected to get any post. He had heard his mother gasp and looked up in time to see her snatch the letter from the poor owl’s beak. The owl had been terrified and flew right off but Sirius didn’t need to see the name on the letter to know he was in trouble.

 

The Potter’s owned a snowy owl that was hard to miss and Sirius had recognized it immediately.

 

His mother took one look at the name on the letter in her hand and then suddenly it burst into flames and she dropped the ashes onto the table and turned with a glare of death to look at Sirius.

 

_Well, shit._

The table had gone completely silent, not that anyone had been talking before the owls arrived but now no one was even breathing as Walburga decided what to do with her eldest son.

 

She snapped her fingers and Kreacher appeared, cowering behind her. There was no “Yes, master” he just stood holding his breath and waiting her command.

 

“Take the… the _delinquent_ to his room. Now.” Her voice took on that quiet dangerous tone that often haunted Sirius’ nightmares and the next thing he knew, the elf’s hand was clamping down hard on Sirius’ wrist and he knew there would be bruises later.

 

Then he was sitting in his room with the door magically sealed shut. He sat in his bed with his head in his hands waiting. His mother was probably pacing around the drawing room cursing and screaming while his father sat in his chair watching silently. He could picture the scene. His brother had probably fled the room not wanting to be underfoot when she finally decided what to do with Sirius.

 

At least he thought she would do something. But she never did. No one came up to his room for three days. A glass of water would magically appear by his door every morning and that was it.

 

_So,_ Sirius thought, _this is my punishment for having friends. Starving to death._

 

On the fourth day of his isolation he had developed such a horrible headache that he could no longer sleep just to make the time pass. He also couldn’t move without getting dizzy so he just laid in bed staring at the ceiling wondering if Regulus was on the other side of his door trying to bring him food.

 

At the end of day four a piece of toast and a cup of tea appeared at his door and he scrambled out of bed, tripping over his sheets to get to the plate. He banged his knee on the hard wood floor, only adding to the growing collection of bruises.

 

He scarffed down the toast in what was probably less than a second and then downed the tea feeling it burn his throat on the way down.

 

He felt sick instantly but refused to throw it all back up again. He still had a couple gulps of water from that morning’s glass so he sipped the rest of it slowly trying not to throw up his toast.

 

His dizziness resurfaced and when he tried to stand up to walk back to the bed he ended up just falling back down again. He gave up after a few attempts and just slumped to the floor and passed out.

 

*******

We was awoken by harsh shouting in his ear. Walburga was mid-rant about how he was an ungrateful slob and bad for the family name. How horrible it was to consort with wizards like _the Potters,_ it was an absolute outrage and made the rest of the Blacks look bad.

 

He didn’t even think she had realized he’d started stirring and she spouted off about what _He_ must be thinking. Sirius didn’t have a clue who _He_ was but he knew it wasn’t himself or his father by the way she spoke. She was speaking like she respected this _He_ person, so it couldn’t have been someone they were related to.

 

After a few more minutes of her shouting, which was making his headache even worse and he felt like he could pass out again and not even wake up next time around, she stopped and snapped her fingers. Kreacher appeared with a look of disgust towards the lump on the floor that was Sirius.

 

“Get _this_ cleaned up and ready to go. Give him a pepper-up, I don’t care what it takes. Make him presentable,” and with that she swept from the room with her dark purple cloak billowing behind her.

 

Sirius thought he was seeing stars as the corners of his vision started glittering and he went to fall back onto the floor but Kreacher took hold of his elbow and yanked him up.

 

More bruises.

 

The fast jerk was too much for him and Sirius couldn’t control himself as he _did_ throw up all over the disgusted elf. He allowed himself a smile smug smile as Kreacher bellowed.

 

The elf cleared the mess with a wave of his hand and was soon shoving Sirius into a bathroom and right into a waiting tub of cold water, clothes and all.

 

An hour later and Sirius felt he had never been in so much pain. His head felt like it would burst at any second and Kreacher had left bruises up and down his arms from jerking him all over the place.

 

“Where are we going?” Sirius demanded for the third time as Kreacher shoved a pepper-up potion in his hand.

 

Kreacher didn’t answer and when Sirius took too long the elf shoved his hand up to his mouth and forced the potion down his throat. Sirius coughed slightly as steam started pouring out of his ears.

 

Then Kreacher was yanking him down the stairs to the front room. When his blurred eyes took in the scene he became even more confused.

 

Regulus was standing with his brand new Hogwarts trunk looking scared while his father paced by the fireplace. His mother was nowhere in sight at the moment. Sirius’ own packed Hogwarts case was on Reg’s other side.

 

“Wha–“ Sirius started but Regulus started hurridly shaking his head.

 

A second later their mother waltzed into the room with their cousin Bellatrix.

 

“Bellatrix will take you to the platform as your father and I have an important meeting today,” his mother drawled and Bella gave the two brothers a wicked smile. Walburga turned to her eldest son. “You will stop being so disrespectful this year. It’s bad enough that old fool let you be placed in that awful arrogant filled house but I will not have you tarnishing the Black family name.”

 

Sirius just blinked at her. _The Platform?_ Wasn’t there a few more days until they went back to Hogwarts? There’s no way he was trapped in his room for two weeks!

 

Walburga bent down to Regulus and kissed his cheek. “Have a lovely year, Regulus. Do _not_ follow after your disgraceful brother.”

 

Then she was gone, sweeping from the room with their father and Kreacher following after her.

 

“Haven’t got all day, boys. Grab on let’s go,” Bella sneered as he held out her hands for them to take.

 

Sirius quickly grabbed his trunk and then her left hand as Reg grabbed her right and then they were being impossibly squeezed as they apperated to the platform.

 

********

“I was so scared Sirius. I don’t know why a letter made her so furious,” Reg whispered as they sat in an empty compartment at the end of the train.

 

“Who have they been meeting with, Reg? She said she didn’t want me being a disappointment in front of _him._ Who’s _him_?” Sirius asked as he shoved their trunks into the overhead compartment.

 

Regulus just shrugged in response.

 

Sirius sighed as he sat down. “I thought’s I’d only been in my room a few days, but two _weeks_?”

 

Regulus nodded. “I don’t know what spell they used but it made time pass weirdly in there. I thought they were actually going to make you starve! I convinced Kreacher to give you something to eat. I wish it was better than toast and tea but he didn’t want to go against mother.”

 

Sirius put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Reg. Thanks for trying.” He took his hand back and leaned into the back of the bench. “Explains why I felt like crap. And still do, actually. Did they give you money for the trolley witch? I think I’ve got some gallions in the bottom of my trunk.”

 

Sirius jumped up to rummage around in his trunk again but Regulus pulled out a pouch filled with coins with a smile.

 

“Also,” Reg sorted through his pockets and produced a slightly squished roast beef sandwich. Sirius beamed at him as he took it from his hands. “Eat slowly or it’ll just come back up,” he laughed as Sirius ripped the plastic off.

 

A few minutes later none other than James Potter busted through the door laughing over his shoulder at something.

 

James looked at Sirius and then turned to Regulus saying, “Wow Si, did you actually shrink?”

 

Sirius rolled his eyes as he slung an arm around the tall bespeckled boy who started laughing again. “Hello to you too, you great prat.”

 

Peter soon came clambering in after him and Sirius introduced both his friends to his brother. Regulus was overly polite and awkwardly shook their hands with a small, “Nice to meet you.”

 

Sirius shot James a look when he started to laugh.

 

They spent the rest of the train ride chatting about what Hogwarts was like and Sirius tried to calm his anxious brother saying he’d probably get into Slytherin so he should stop worrying about what his parents would do if he followed Sirius to Gryffindor.

 

Sirius knew Regulus was terrified of their parents and would probably beg the sorting hat to put him in Slytherin when he got up there tonight. He tried not to let the thought of being in a different house from his brother bother him.

 

He’d always known Regulus wasn’t a Gryffindor. Maybe he’d end up in Ravenclaw or something, who knows? But it was never going to be Gryffindor. And his mother would probably have an aneurysm if Reg was sorted into Hufflepuff.

 

*******

Later that night Sirius watched as his brother walked over to the green and silver table that was deafening with cheers. His brother gave him an apologetic look over his shoulder as he sat down, but if he was being honest with himself, there was a part of Sirius that was glad Regulus had ended up in Slytherin. There would be no reason for his mother to go after his baby brother and he wouldn’t get hurt.

 

He could protect Regulus from a distance and everything would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, there you have it! Year 3! I'll be away for the next week, just to let you know. But hope you enjoy the new chapter! Thanks for reading.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr for any updates on when I am likely to update next (also just tons of nice fluffy wolfstar & jily): accio--mischief


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